In the News

Frankel vs. the Pandemic: Congresswoman used mayoral skills to help constituents

Former West Palm mayor turns to experts to provide public with scientific facts

West Palm Beach, FL, October 29, 2020

As the worst pandemic in 100 years swept into Florida last March, it seemed the only thing spreading faster than coronavirus was the misinformation surrounding it.

From death and infection data to prevention and vaccines, doctors, scientists, and certainly politicians, tended to voice strong — and often dissenting — opinions about the deadly plague. Even top government officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention often changed their positions amid advancing research, and, perhaps most worrisome, political pressure.

The result? A population that was frightened, frustrated and in search of reliable facts.

Enter Lois Frankel: District 21 congresswoman, former mayor of West Palm Beach, grandmother, and, most recently, slayer of coronavirus misinformation.

The result, amid election year politicking, is Frankel employed problem-solving skills honed as a two-term local government administrator to guide constituents through the COVID-19 labyrinth. In the process, Frankel, as did her congressional peers, superseded the frustrating challenge every lawmaker faces in a crisis: How to megaphone her voice and views to the public at large?

Within days of Florida’s first reported case of COVID-19 on March 1, Frankel held her first roundtable with fellow congressman Ted Deutch, a Boca Raton Democrat, and Florida Department of Health Palm Beach County Director Alina Alonso. That same day, Frankel voted for the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, which provided $8.3 billion to federal agencies to respond to the outbreak.

“There is comfort in knowing your leaders in government have your back, and that’s one of the reasons I have done so much outreach to people in so many ways — town halls, zooms, telephone conferences, etc.,” Frankel said. “Getting input, putting out accurate information and letting people know we have their back and are fighting for them and getting the resources people need to survive.”

Mask or no mask? Must I close my business? Is it safe for my children to attend school? Can the bag in which my food was delivered infect me with COVID-19?

Rapid-fire questions came faster than the answers, but having had a political career dating back to the Florida Legislature in 1987 meant Frankel’s rolodex was overflowing with experts and community leaders who could shed light and perspective on the burgeoning pandemic.

“When you are a mayor, you have a crisis at least once a week,” she said about diving headfirst into the mayhem. “It’s not a joke — the unexpected always happens, and I learned how to manage crises. You learn who to turn to, who to talk to, how to communicate.

That experience — which included guiding residents through four hurricanes — paid off, and Frankel’s offices became go-to places for constituents and even other legislators to turn for up-to-the minute information.

To date, Frankel has held over 85 roundtables, teleconferences, press conferences, Facebook live events and town halls. Recurring guests like Alonso — along with an array of medical doctors, psychologists, school board members, state legislators and local business and community leaders — spent countless hours sharing breaking news and simply listening to people's fears and frustrations.

“You hear what people have to say, you absorb it, you learn from it, you make changes, but you can’t get distracted from what your focus is,” Frankel said of having to persevere even when her heart is breaking. “My focus, since March, every single day, is getting our folks through this crisis."

By the time Gov. Ron DeSantis on April 28 released his “Safe. Smart. Step-by-Step” plan for Florida’s recovery, Frankel and other legislators were crying foul on the governor’s claims that fear was overtaking facts. President Donald Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago home is in Frankel's district, was also vocal about what he said was unwarranted hysteria spurred on by a virus he repeatedly said would "disappear."

By contrast, Frankel held Zoom events, often with fellow legislators, where the public could see and hear first-hand what doctors and scientists were saying. She offered the information to people, she said, even when it contradicted — and continues to contradict — what the governor and the presidentare saying.

“COVID is going to surge back in Florida,” she said. “It is already, and our governor, they want to act like everything is normal. They want to get through to the election. He says the cure is worse than the disease, but the fact of the matter is we all want to get people back to work, get our children back to school. But we can only do it if we do it safely. Between the president and a governor, you have a double whammy who completely misled people.”

Few aspects of the pandemic were as negatively impactful to Floridians as the epic failure of the state’s unemployment system, which left many unable to access benefits for weeks or sometimes months, Frankel said.

“The unemployment insurance was a mess in Florida,” she said of the thousands of calls her offices received from despondent claimants. “It was almost around the clock. On a scale of 1 to 10, it was an 11.”

For those living paycheck-to-paycheck, the loss of even one week’s pay meant they could not pay rent, make their car payments, or, in some cases, feed their families, she said.

“People sat for miles for a small grocery bag,” she said of drive-through food banks. “That’s desperation.”

Her latest fight is for the two million Floridians who rely on Obamacare for their health insurance, as well as the countless others with pre-existing conditions who will find themselves high and dry in two weeks if the Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Care Act, she said.

Taking away healthcare in the middle of a pandemic is not something Frankel can even conceive of, and she said she fears for the health and economic stability Floridians as the pandemic rages on.

“Most people have used up their savings, and how much are they making? $30,000 to $40,000 per year? Now they are losing their health insurance,” she said. “They never got a handout in their lives and now they are losing their job. It’s horrendous.”

In a pandemic there are no days off, and with her grandson sometimes playing by her side, Frankel toils away, she said, fighting for Floridians who can’t be with their families or who lost a loved one to COVID. She, too, only weeks ago, felt the pain of attending a virtual funeral.

“To do what I do, you have to be an optimist. I’m not happy about what’s happening, but I’m not depressed. I still have my marbles and I still have a lot of fight in me to try to right all the wrongs. I am hopeful for better days.”