LOL! Sore loser, "reclassify deaths" or "hospitals counting like this" 31,000 Deaths, very admirable! LOL!
Opinion | Even by Florida standards, Gov. Ron DeSantis is a covid-19 catastrophe - The Washington Post
Even by Florida standards, Gov. Ron DeSantis is a covid-19 catastrophe
Dec. 21, 2020 at 6:13 p.m. EST
Earlier this month, just as Florida neared its
20,000th covid-19 death, a bit of good cheer popped into the inboxes of 160 state lawmakers: an invitation (plus one!) to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s
holiday bash at his
Tallahassee mansion. No masks or social distancing required; any devotion to science or reality could be checked at the door. The event narrowly avoided superspreader status: The
state senate’s president regretted his absence only hours before the soiree when a coronavirus test came back positive.
Welcome to Florida — America’s sun-drenched State of Suspended Disbelief. From the pandemic’s infancy, DeSantis has conveniently, even diabolically, airbrushed covid-19 out of public life here. The result:
1.2 million total covid-19 cases, nearly 61,000 total
hospitalizations and a new seven-day case-positivity rate of
9.7 percent — all rapidly rising toward crisis levels. Even Texas, which isn’t exactly a model of coronavirus caution, has a
statewide mask mandate and lower cumulative
infection rate than
Florida.
The Republican governor’s response to the pandemic, in other words, has been a disaster — yet he shows no signs of changing course. Today, amid the state’s third surge, Floridians and tourists stand shoulder-to-shoulder in bars and restaurants and sashay into nightclubs and strip clubs. At the same time, DeSantis continues to shrug off statewide mask and distancing orders along with any real effort at contact tracing.
The governor has consistently
played down the risks of covid-19, ignored credentialed
scientists,
sided with herd-immunity advocates, withheld information about
hospitalizations and cases in
nursing homes and
schools, and
cherry-picked numbers. In a state with a strong open-records law, DeSantis smothers transparency. As part of a “Blue Skies” initiative, reported by the
South Florida Sun Sentinel, our governor even made clear that the state health department’s media people should not mention covid-19 until after the election; instead, department communications encouraged Floridians to get their flu shots and sign up for hearing-loss screenings.
Full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic
Now DeSantis is refusing to release the weekly
White House Coronavirus Task Force Reports on Florida, and news organizations are suing. Replete with dire warnings, the reports apparently contradict his cavalier way of doing business here.
As if all this weren’t enough, DeSantis has also
barred local governments from implementing shutdowns or fining mask scofflaws, making it even harder to persuade Floridians to take anti-covid-19 precautions. Some cities are in
open rebellion, setting the stage for a state-local showdown. Who said Republicans aren’t hot for centralizing power?
The governor can at least take credit for one successful contact trace: His public-health strategy is openly tied to President Trump. DeSantis even paid tribute, in a way, by placing
1 million orders of hydroxychloroquine. It was the least he could do, considering that
aping Trump got him elected in 2018.
DeSantis, for his part, pats himself on the back for his half-blind strategy. “We have, I think, really saved the livelihoods of millions and millions of students, parents, workers, business owners by approaching this in an evidence-based way that focused on facts, not fear, and in a way that was more moderate,” the governor
recently told political donors and corporate bigwigs.
Admittedly, the state’s open-for-business policy has preserved jobs. Yes, wrecking Florida’s vulnerable tourism-and-hospitality economy would only ruin more lives, although many visitors are steering clear because of our hands-off covid-19 response and high numbers. I also agree schools should be open with the right precautions. But the governor has needlessly damaged the lives of so many Floridians with his unnecessary all-or-nothing approach: Mask mandates and social distancing are not pointless, and manipulating information to hide the seriousness of the pandemic is reprehensible.
DeSantis knew all too well that Florida would largely embrace his reckless approach. Floridians aren’t exactly known for their prudence and judgment. There’s a reason we gave the world
Florida Man — who “responsibly” fires guns, “does not routinely defraud Medicare,” “resists the impulse” to haul an
alligator into a convenience store or showcase his own
“Most Wanted” poster on his Facebook page. It’s not a coincidence that, pushed by DeSantis, wearing a mask here devolves into a
quién es más macho standoff. It’s a mask, for God’s sake, not a sedation-free vasectomy.
To be sure, not all Floridians are buying what DeSantis is selling. They are, however, buying the perfect protest prop:
“My Governor Is An Idiot” face masks. According to a woman who sells them on Etsy, many Floridians are scooping up her inventory. Meanwhile, on Twitter, the governor has been dubbed “
Duh-Santis,” an impressive distinction for a graduate of Yale and Harvard Law School. I guess it’s better than his other handle, “
DeathSantis.”
De Santis is the best. He could well be the next President.
