A "Top-Ranking" Florida Health Official And Expert On Disease Takes A Break From This Coronavirus Pandemic Thing For A Well-Earned 14 Day Vacation On A Cruise Ship

FLORIDA TODAY — Brevard County's top-ranking health official is taking a cruise this week amid the worldwide pandemic of the new coronavirus, and she will "limit interactions with others" for 14 days upon return to the United States.

Maria Stahl is administrator of the Florida Department of Health in Brevard, which is headquartered on Judge Fran Jamieson Way in Viera.

There have been multiple blogs lately where I've stressed the importance of mental health, how you really can't understate how absolutely crucial it is to make sure you're always in a good place up there and taking care of yourself. One huge part of that obviously is avoiding burnout. Especially today when it seems like everybody is working harder than ever, scared to even leave their desk for lunch let alone take vacation days, feeling like they can't possibly afford to miss any time because there are always 100 people waiting to replace you if your boss questions your work ethic for even one second. It's a fast-track towards a breakdown, not to mention that what will actually get you fired is when all that work you're doing gets worse and worse as you burn out. 

But let me clarify this a little bit. 

And this is really important:

Some things are more important than mental health. Like, there are some things that are absolutely, without any doubt more important than you having burnout. For example:

If there is a worldwide pandemic the likes of which we have never seen before, a global crisis that stretches across international borders, a killer virus leaving dead bodies from China to Washington State and everywhere in between, and we haven't even reached the peak yet, the worst is yet to come, our entire way of life and sense of normalcy has been destroyed and the people are in a pure panic terrified for their lives and their families' lives and desperately looking for answers and information while scientists and health officials are desperately searching for a cure, a treatment, scrambling to figure out emergency plans....

....and you are a "top-ranking" official working in "health," with 25 years experience in the "Department of Health", a literal expert, extremely knowledgable about disease and its spread....

....This is a time I was talking about, where something takes a priority over your work stress. Just for a little bit. Maybe just a few weeks. A couple months tops. Not forever, just for the near future, just until this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic disease is more under control, which could possibly be even quicker if all the health officials who are so good with this stuff that they are literally named the "top-ranking" put their fucking white trash Carnival Cruise on hold for a little bit. 

I get it, you need to get away, you need a break, you need to rest and recharge under the sun in the open seas on the dock of a beautiful gigantic cruise ship that only has probably a 95% chance of being quarantined at a port for a month after everyone on it gets coronavirus. But 7.7 billion people are just asking you really nicely if you'd consider rescheduling for July or some time when we don't think if we open the window we're going to die. 

Obviously there are some other factors at play here in this particular story. Major one is to remember this is a story in Florida Today, about Florida's top-ranking health official, in the state of Florida. I'd never suggest one state in the country is less important than any other state in the country, but Florida is. 

Plus have you seen Barstool over the past 2 decades? There are 4 stories a day on here about those fuckers down there: eating people's faces, drunkenly riding lawnmowers into a pet store to buy meth, 1st grade teachers buying 8-balls of meth in the middle of 2nd period, parents giving their children home exorcisms while high on meth, meth, meth, meth over here and meth over there. Last year they found out that the man found dead inside of an alligator had died from a meth overdose. The fucking alligators do meth in Florida!! People in Florida do so much meth the Florida air is literally composed of meth molecules. Those guys have been building a tolerance for this exact moment for generations. If anyone is prepared for their top health-official to go on a 2 week vacation at the exact time they have literally never been needed more, it's the good people of Florida. 

And finally, sorry for saving this for last, I know what everyone was most worried about was Dr. Stahl's personal health on her 2 week vacation —

She promised not to talk to too many people.

Brevard County's top-ranking health official is taking a cruise this week amid the worldwide pandemic of the new coronavirus, and she will "limit interactions with others" for 14 days upon return to the United States.

So you can relax a little bit. Dump that Purell back into your IV bag and inject that shit straight into your veins and remember to take deep breaths. Just not of any of the air outside.