Why Did Florida Avoid a Coronavirus Disaster?
Theory 1: A Hot and Humid Climate
Theory 2: Protecting the Elderly
Theory 3: It Didn’t Actually Do That Well https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/how-florida-avoided-coronavirus-disaster.html

Theory 1: I think its possible, and we've talked about it quite a bit.

But I think the bigger thing (which they discuss) is human behavior. Forcing people outside dramatically decreases spread of the disease. The warmer it is, the more they are outside.

Theory 2: Definitely true. DeSantis did a FAR better job protecting the elderly than Cuomo, Murphy, Whitmer, Hogan, Baker, etc.

"Florida ramped up testing at long-term care facilities and gave the workers at those facilities priority when it came to PPE and other resources."

"DeSantis ordered the National Guard to conduct on-site tests at elder care homes, ordered all staff at senior care facilities to be screened for temperatures, and launched a mobile testing lab to travel to long-term care facilities."

"Significantly, in early May, he ordered hospitals to test patients before transferring them to the care facilities. NY, by comparison, mandated nursing homes accept recovering COVID patients in order to free up beds in the hospitals—a decision that has been heavily criticized."

Theory 3 largely focuses on data problems; there certainly were data problems, but none of that appears to be malicious, nor does it really affect the reality that they did far better than states like NY, regardless.