5 ways the COVID-19 pandemic changed Florida

• The virus hit elderly people and those with preexisting conditions especially hard.

Politics: Gov. Ron DeSantis redefined himself as a conservative warrior prepared to take on the federal government, a reinvention propped up on long-held distrust of public health measures.

• The pandemic is so essential to his "Florida blueprint" that it earned a chapter in his book, "The Courage to Be Free," in which he contrasted his leadership with former President Biden and President Trump's.
• After briefly locking down the state, he positioned Florida as a mecca of personal freedom, and his decision to reopen the state and restrict efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus built up his national media profile.
• And once the headlines arrived, DeSantis made sure they stayed. In his own words, a leader "shapes opinion through newsworthy actions," which is exactly what followed.

Education: The debate about who should have a say in a child's education took center stage in the months after schools shut down — and paved the way for Florida to become a test kitchen for conservative policies that favored parents' rights.

• Conservative group Moms for Liberty, founded in Florida in 2021, garnered national attention and influence after launching a fight against masking in schools and what it claimed was critical race theory in classrooms.
• The uproar over CRT set the stage for GOP lawmakers to pass policies including the Parental Rights in Education Law (dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics) and the Stop Woke Act — at the cost of teachers' and students' autonomy, detractors say.
• In 2023, lawmakers passed one of the nation's most expansive school choice programs to, according to supporters, give parents more options for their children's education. It's resulted in declining enrollment and school closures in traditional public schools.

Population: Whether it was the politics or the allure of working remotely from paradise, the pandemic led to a Sunshine State population boom.

• In 2022, the Census named Florida the fastest-growing state in the country for the first time since 1957. Our population grew 5% from April 2020 to July 2023, per Census data. Last year, it eclipsed 23 million people.
• The growth has had all sorts of implications for politics (Florida has only gotten redder), development (it's seemingly never-ending) and traffic (dear God, someone help us).
• And a few transplants found out just how metal it is to live in a swamp barely fit for human habitation.

Business: The pandemic led to the largest nationwide increase in new business applications in American history, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — and Florida was no exception.

• Florida had about 61% more new business applications from January 2020 to 2021, per U.S. Census data. The state hit its peak in May 2021 with over 65,000 new applications.
• COVID lockdowns gave budding entrepreneurs the time — and extra cash, via federal stimulus funds — to pursue new business ideas.
• Meanwhile, existing businesses had to pivot from walk-in service to pickup or delivery operations, and many closed temporarily or permanently.