The club’s precautions—including an attempt at social distancing—made him feel there was minimal risk of catching the coronavirus from the impulsive visit, Yousef said. But asked if he’d endorse a patient easing out of quarantine like that—even with distance and a mask—Dr. Bernard Ashby, a vascular cardiologist based in Miami Beach, told The Daily Beast: “It’s not worth it.”

“There’s active community spread,” Ashby added. “If you’re young, you’re old, it doesn’t matter.”

Indeed, conversations with experts and residents suggest that despite a wide range of social-distancing practices, Florida’s party- and tourism-fueled economy is stoking the flames of a disastrous surge in COVID-19 infection. In fact, as the number of positive cases in Florida has catapulted in recent weeks—with new records being made seemingly by the day—the state has emerged as a new national locus for what might prove to be an exceptionally deadly summer.