Spring breakers defy coronavirus lockdown: ‘This virus ain’t that serious’
They’re gonna fight for their right to party.
Thousands of American college students refuse to let the pesky coronavirus pandemic get in the way of their annual pilgrimage to Florida for spring break.
Ignoring repeated warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization about the potentially deadly COVID-19 virus, the masses showed up in Miami — only to find their good times hijacked by safety measures to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus that are taking effect.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the closure of all bars and nightclubs in the state for 30 days as of Tuesday evening — after college crews were spotted partying at Clearwater Beach. “A lot of students have just been congregating at the universities and doing things there, and that’s not something we want,” DeSantis said at a news conference Tuesday.
Resolute revelers in the city’s South Beach neighborhood, however, vowed to keep the party popping.
“If I get corona, I get corona,” Brady Sluder, a defiant party animal of indeterminate age from Ohio, told Reuters. “At the end of the day, I’m not going to let it stop me from partying.”
Launching at the peak of Miami’s tourist season, “social distancing” precautions will also see national movie theaters, gyms and other businesses shut down to discourage gatherings of more than 10 people, which the CDC warns could spread the virus. However, the governor stopped short of closing some of the beaches spring breakers were partying on, WFLA reported.
Still, Brianna Smith, a 21-year-old from Wisconsin, whined that the measures were too drastic.
“It’s really messing with my spring break. What is there to do here other than go to the bars or the beach? And they’re closing all of it,” Smith told the outlet. “I think they’re blowing it way out of proportion. I think it’s doing way too much.”
Ni Smith, who journeyed from New Orleans to Miami with three besties for spring break, said her crew intended to soldier on in the face of disappointment.
“I mean, it sucks, but we’re going to make the best of it. It sucks, and I’m from New Orleans, so this really sucks,” the 23-year-old said as she cruised along South Beach’s legendary Ocean Drive in a golf cart. “We’re going to enjoy ourselves. We’re having day parties all day. It’s my birthday, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, turn it up.”
Unlike packed Clearwater Beach, a large section of South Beach is now empty after it was closed off to visitors to prevent infections, Reuters reports.
“Everything’s closed. A lot of restaurants are doing to-go food and they’re serving just the hotel guests so they can obviously order food to their rooms,” said bar manager Jeffrey Holinka. “The beaches are closed . . . Everything’s been closed for the last couple days now and that might be for a longer period of time.”
The bottom line for spring breaker Atlantis Walker, 21, of Indiana: “What they’re doing is bad; we need a refund. This virus ain’t that serious. There’s more serious things out there like hunger and poverty — we need to address that.”