Coronavirus Report: The Hill’s Steve Clemons interviews Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez

The Hill’s Steve Clemons interviews Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez, who was one of the first people to test positive for the COVID-19 virus in Miami-Dade County, Fla. He donated his blood plasma, after recovery, to help with treatment for critically ill patients fighting the disease. Suarez was the first mayor in the nation to issue a stay-at-home order, suspending large gatherings and events, and asking both President Trump and major airlines to suspend travel from Miami Airport to other global coronavirus hot spots. 

Some excerpts from the interview are below:

On how both he and Miami are doing

SUAREZ: I’m doing very well. … Miami is doing well as well. We seem to have hit the peak so far with the data that we have on March 31. Miami-Dade County is lagging a little bit behind us. Their peak seemed to be April 3 and Florida ’s peak is probably April 3. Now that is the peak of new cases, new infection cases. In other words, ever since April 3 or March 31, it appears that the number of new cases are going down. And that’s obviously very good news. The number of deaths, we know, lags a few weeks behind that number because, unfortunately, the cycle of the COVID-19 disease is somewhere between 14 and 21 days. In my particular case, it took me 17 days before I could test negative for the first time. And then the 18th day I tested negative for the second time. So we’re seeing deaths still rise. While new cases are coming down, hospitalizations are also favorable in terms of discharges and new patients. 

{mosads}Clemons: You wrote in The New York Times, mayor, that nobody really wants to catch something like this, but in a way you were in a way glad you had because it gave you a sensitivity to the dynamics of this virus and what it was going to do. … What insights did it give you? 

SUAREZ: I was actually the second person in all of Miami Dade County, which is an area with a population of 3 million people. … Had I not immediately quarantined … I could have infected hundreds, if not thousands of people and even crippled our government’s ability to function. So I was very fortunate that fire chief, our medical director, took conservative steps to get me to quarantine, to get me to test, and then of course, I had to run the city virtually for 18 days from home. 

What did you do early on to prepare your hospitals, your health care workers and your health ecosystem after you had been infected and saw this disease coming?

SUAREZ: Our fire chief identified the threat in February, right around the time that we had the Super Bowl. … He started purchasing personal protective equipment weeks before anyone else thought of it. We were also consulting with experts in Florida International University that helped us determine that we should cancel two large events. One of them was Ultra, which is an event that hosts 150,000 people from 105 different countries. … I was actually criticized when I did that. I was criticized by a county mayor who said that I acted prematurely, that Miami was open for business. Unfortunately, he didn’t close our beaches, which led thousands if not tens of thousands of, you know, spring breakers to come to Miami, to party in Miami. And unfortunately, and tragically, we have two that passed away after a music festival here in our city. So, you know, we saw the cost of inaction and we saw the benefits of acting. And fortunately, I saw that a lot of cities that acted benefited and those that did not suffered. 

On whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis should have shut down earlier

SUAREZ: To his credit, he let the municipalities lead the way. We are the areas with the largest aggregation of population. So he didn’t stand in our way from implementing measures early, and so we’re thankful for that. He also had to weigh the fact that he had 20 to 25 counties that had no cases. Shutting down Florida is very different from shutting down Miami or Tampa, Orlando or Jacksonville. He ultimately ended up shutting down South Florida. And then I think he realized that, you know, he was just getting behind all the other governors in the United States that were shutting down their states and and just in an abundance of caution, the right thing to do was to shut down Florida. You know, I’m sure if he had a do over, maybe he would have done it earlier. But you know, I’m glad that as mayor, I decided Miami early on to be the first city to put a stay at home order in Dade County, the first city to put a curfew. The first city, as you said to cancel large events. And to also require distancing in grocery stores, at banks and at construction sites, to wear masks and even customers at those of those establishments to wear masks. 

What advice do you have for other mayors who are on the front end of this?

SUAREZ: The first thing I would advise him is immediately implement a stay-at-home order. Immediately send out advisories on social distancing. I would recommend a curfew as well, because that’s even stricter than your stay-at-home order during the daytime that almost limits to just emergency, people have to leave for emergency reasons. That would be my first piece of advice. The second piece of advice would be, you know, obviously, to make sure that you have sufficient beds. If you don’t have sufficient bedding in your hospital, reach out to the federal government, reach out to your state government, make sure that they’re giving you supplementary beds. But it’s clear to me based on the data that we’re looking at, that if you do implement these social distancing rules, if you do implement stay at home orders, people do respect those orders. Then in about a week to two weeks you’re going to see a leveling off of the brand new cases. Obviously, the deaths, like we said before, lag behind a week or two weeks because of the cycle of infection. But at least in terms of the new cases, there will be light at the end of the tunnel, and it’ll give you reason to believe that better days are ahead. 

What should the federal government have done to be more on your side?

SUAREZ: I think one thing that we need right now is funding. Obviously, you know the bailout, or what you want to call it, the stimulus, was important. It would have been great if it happened a little earlier in anticipation of April 1, which was the first day when everything was shut down when people have to pay the rent and their mortgages. So it would’ve been great if it would have happened a few weeks earlier. Obviously, you know, getting more testing, that’s something that you know, this is an unprecedented time, and I don’t want to lay blame on anyone. But I think people would have felt more confident have we been able to test sooner. And I think being a little more supportive of our message to stay home would have been helpful.

On things that regular people could be doing to help

SUAREZ: Well, number one, I have had a few people that have donated blood plasma [as I did], but it’s just very difficult because there is a lack of back end stuff for this, so that’s one of the things we’re gonna have to look at. Obviously, we’re focusing a lot on testing people that are symptomatic. … We have 7,000 people in Dade County that are positive. Those people should have a right to be retested and they should be able to donate plasma. I think that’s one way to do it. … But when we have a situation like this, two things worry me. One is suicides, from people who are alone, and the second is domestic violence. You know, our domestic violence complaints are way down, and that actually worries me because I don’t think that people are being nicer. I think what’s happening is that people feel afraid in this particular predicament where they’re stuck at home from calling the police, from calling 911. And so those are the two things that as citizens, I would urge you to try to get involved either in helping someone — being a presence in someone’s life — or making sure that if there’s any sort of domestic violence happening in your community, to please urge those people to come forward.