Even for Ron DeSantis, this is idiotic

| 10:00 pm EDT August 6, 2021
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In typical Republican fashion, Ron DeSantis tried blaming President Joe Biden for the Covid problems in Florida. As is also typical, he used a dumb argument. According to Politico, while at a press conference in Panama City, DeSantis said that “immigrants illegally crossing the border from Mexico” could be the cause of Covid surges in Florida. Think about that for just a minute. In DeSantis’ scenario, immigrants crossed the border, traveled through multiple states to bring Covid to Florida without causing numbers to surge in the other states they crossed. If they came in through California, they crossed through several more states. Yet, they managed to keep their virus under wraps until they hit Florida. Okay…that sounds reasonable.

As you might suspect, this was all a soundbite for DeSantis. He used the clip in a fundraising email and then went to spread the same crap on Fox. Republicans are so predictable. They find an issue that caters to their base, and they run with it. Everyone is aware of the problems at the border, but most with sense know that has nothing whatsoever to do with the spread of Covid. Besides, the U.S. needs no help spreading Covid; “leaders” like DeSantis are handling that just fine on their own. DeSantis is merely trying to explain away his lack of leadership. According to Politico, DeSantis calls himself “data driven” when referring to Covid. Perhaps we should point out some data for him.

As of August 2, 2021, the head of the Florida Hospital Association (“FHA”) warned that coronavirus hospitalization is exploding. He called the numbers “skyrocketing” and said it “is unlike anything the state has seen before.” DeSantis must not have seen this data. Politico provided some other data that DeSantis needs to put in his pipe and smoke. As of Monday, FHA reported 10,389 Covid hospitalizations, which is the highest number in the state at any time during the pandemic. These numbers have been confirmed by the CDC, and Florida now accounts for one in five cases nationally. Mr. “data driven” is obviously not paying attention to the data, since he has issued executive orders to stop people from mandating masks in their places of business and in schools. This behavior is despicable, even for DeSantis. Now, DeSantis’s office claims that they are seeing infections in younger people “because [they] have been so successful in vaccinating seniors.” Really? Then, why is only 52% of the population vaccinated? Listening to DeSantis, you would think they have 100% vaccinations.

DeSantis is trying to “wish” his Covid problem away by pretending it is not an issue. He has discontinued his Covid-19 briefings. Further, as mentioned earlier, he issued an executive order threatening schools with losing funding for requiring masks, and Politico reported that he is ready to go to war with businesses that require masks. Nikki Fried, Democratic candidate for governor summed this situation up best: “To say it’s not as bad as it was in the height of the pandemic last year is inaccurate, dishonest and dangerous.” That pretty much sums up Ron DeSantis.