The first thought that came to my mind on this subject is one that was
expressed by James Fischer already:

The easy way to test the hypothesis of whether healthy happy bees on
small cell foundation will be resistant to SHB would be to take some of
those colonies to an area of Florida where SHB is worst and see if they
survive.  Anything else is just supposition until SHB and these colonies
exist in the same geographical area.

It may be, though, that there are many environmental factors which will
also affect the survivability of SHB, and they may not do well in dry
desert areas, so the real reason the bees in those areas may not be
affected is climate rather than bee management practices.  Again,
all supposition until we do the experiments to show what the actual
factors are.

Layne Westover, College Station Texas (formerly from Missouri,
the "Show-Me State")