“I found out that my law firm was switching to telework in the midst of a business trip to San Diego. As I drove to the airport for my flight back home to Seattle on March 8, I questioned the wisdom of returning to what was by then America’s first coronavirus hotspot. Having spent many years living in China, I was following events in Wuhan closely. I moved to Guangzhou only two years after the SARS outbreak, and lived through the H5N1 and H1NI scares. Mindful of the new virus’ potential to spread quickly, I was concerned that images in Wuhan were a prelude of what was to come in large American cities, with Seattle at the lead. At the airport, I made a game-time decision to hop on a plane to Tallahassee, Florida, where my mother lives, where I hoped the relative isolation would provide a bulwark of sorts against COVID-19.

Upon arrival in Florida, there were few signs that anyone in the state was concerned about the virus.  More than a week later, with Washington State already reporting 66 coronavirus deaths, now-infamous scenes of a spring-breaker in Miami Beach declaring “If I get corona, I get corona” were broadcast around the world. While there were no facemasks to be found in Tallahassee stores, no one seemed to be wearing them in public either. In fact, even as mask use became more common, I still got occasional looks of barely concealed disdain. When I heard my colleagues talk about the situation back in Seattle, where everyone was on edge, it felt like I had called a different planet.

Despite many Floridians’ apparent nonchalance regarding the health risks, the pandemic has undoubtedly imposed hardships on everyone. As a state, Florida’s economy relies largely on tourists that are not coming. Tallahassee is not a tourist spot, but it is a university town. Suspended classes mean that most of the approximately 40,000 students who attend the city’s two state universities are not pumping money into those businesses that continue to operate.