As of yesterday,  Florida has well more than a million cases of COVID-19 and Miami-Dade County has consistently suffered with approximately one-quarter of that total. More than 300,000 Americans have died and death counts continue to be high. More than 20,000 Floridians have died due to COVID-19, and more than 4,000 Miami-Dade residents have died due to the virus.

Unfortunately, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools COVID-19 dashboard, which tracks infections for students and staff in the district, continues to climb as well.

This week, several significant developments in the good news department, which we hope means that 2021 will have better outcomes for more people than 2020. 

First off, The Electoral College formally chose Joe Biden on Monday as the nation’s next president, giving him a solid electoral majority of 306 votes and confirming his victory in last month’s election. The state-by-state voting took on added importance this year because of President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede he had lost.

As we know, Florida voters were in the minority nationally, selected Donald Trump as the nominee in his adopted home state. 

The coronavirus tests forced one of the 29 electors, Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, to drop out after he tested positive for the coronavirus Sunday night.

Simpson, who was formally chosen as Senate president last month, is the most high-profile state lawmaker known to test positive for the virus. 

The second piece of good news for this week, is that Florida is planning to get COVID-19 vaccines to more than 150 hospitals by next week. The news of Moderna’s likely federal authorization puts the stateon a timeline to vaccinate front-line healthcare workers at more than 150 hospitals within the next two weeks.

On this Day:  December 15, 1791, the new United States of America ratified the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, confirming the fundamental rights of its citizens.  Howard Zinn said, 'We should celebrate, honor, all those people who risked their jobs, their freedom, sometimes their lives, to affirm the rights we all have, rights not limited to some document, but rights our common sense tells us we should all have as human beings."
Dec. 15, 1791: Bill of Rights Ratified - Zinn Education Project (zinnedproject.org)