TALLAHASSEE — In a wide-ranging attack on efforts to combat COVID-19, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday called on the Republican-controlled legislature to make permanent Florida bans on mask mandates in schools and colleges. vaccine requirements for local governments and businesses.
The measures were passed in a special session DeSantis called at the end of 2021, as he battled many Florida school districts, private businesses and the federal government under President Joe Biden, who were taking actions they considered potentially necessary to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.
The warrant bans approved by Florida lawmakers then are due to expire in June.
But DeSantis wants to keep them on the books and has raised the specter that efforts to restore them could emerge from places like California, which actually lifted statewide requirements nearly a year ago. year.
“Being the Free State of Florida didn’t happen by accident,” DeSantis said in a campaign rally-style speech to a crowd at a Panama City theater where, before he took the stage, a member Governor’s office staff asked people to wave signs reading “Science, Not Censorship.”
Ladapo promotes dubious vaccine dataFlorida surgeon general Ladapo appears on anti-vaccine podcast and promotes medical lies
Florida is alone in balkingFlorida surgeon general defends opposition to COVID-19 vaccines for children before Congress
DeSantis gets a grand jury on vaccinesFlorida Supreme Court approves DeSantis appeal for coronavirus vaccine grand jury
‘Just Crazy:’ DeSantis Keeps Saying Warrants Collide With Freedom
DeSantis continued, touting his defense of freedom in Florida. “It has forced us over the past few years to oppose the great institutions of our society: the bureaucracy, the medical establishment, the legacy media and even the President of the United States who together worked to impose a security state. biomedical to society,” he said.
For about an hour, DeSantis and other guest speakers questioned the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and masking, condemning what speakers said were ongoing efforts in other states to reinstate masks or require that students or university staff receive reminders.
“It’s just crazy that we’re still doing this,” DeSantis said.
The deadline Florida faces on COVID-19 warrant bans will bring the issue to the Legislative Assembly when it convenes in March. But it also gives DeSantis, widely seen as a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, an opportunity to push back against the Biden administration.
Vaccinations and COVID-19 masks are also a hot topic among many Republican voters nationwide. The Kaiser Family Foundation’s COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor reports that only 37% of Republicans say they are vaccinated and boosted, compared to 74% of voters who identify as Democrats.
More than 84,000 Floridians have died from COVID-19, while the state has reported nearly 7.4 million cases since the pandemic began.
Florida doctors appear with DeSantis
Tuesday’s event included a pair of area doctors: Dr. Jon Ward, a dermatologist from Panama City who promotes “natural immunity” on his Twitter account and another, Dr. Tim Boyett, a radiologist from Gulf Breeze , who avoided the vaccine but was helped by what he said was a “three-day treatment regimen”, which he says has been successful with other patients battling COVID-19.
U.S. Representative Neal Dunn, R-Panama City, also a medical doctor, welcomed the governor’s approach.
Among those who joined DeSantis was Florida surgeon general Joseph Ladapo, who recently came under fire from colleagues at the University of Florida medical school for what they concluded was of flawed research that led the state health department to issue guidelines discouraging COVID-19 vaccines for men under 40. , citing possible heart risks discovered by the department.
The governor’s office dismissed the criticism.
“There’s a lot of madness out there,” Ladapo said of mask recommendations from state and federal governments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Surgeon General Ladapo mocks California
He and DeSantis also ridiculed a California law that allows regulators to punish doctors for spreading false information about COVID-19 vaccinations and treatments.
“They should be allowed to speak their mind and they shouldn’t be forced or basically scared off by feeling they can’t speak up,” Ladapo said.
DeSantis agreed and said he wants state lawmakers to include a new ban against any proposals that could result in regulatory penalties for doctors who ask about vaccines or masks in Florida.
“You’re going to make Florida the state where if a really high quality doctor gets kicked out of California, that’s the first place people want to go,” DeSantis said.
John Kennedy is a reporter for the Florida Capital Bureau of the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport
#DeSantis #ready #stoke #Floridas #fight #COVID19 #mandates