Ron DeSantis has a whole new scandal
Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order Friday prohibiting any business in Florida “from requiring patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or post-transmission recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the business.”
While President Biden’s administration has made it clear there will be no mandate requiring such vaccine credentials, there is a worldwide movement by certain businesses to require them for entry to large gatherings and for certain services, led by the travel and entertainment industry, hence they are often referred to as “vaccine passports.” Biden’s administration is helping with guidelines for a universal way to voluntarily show vaccine credentials. New York state already has a vaccine passport, and many countries are working on this.
DeSantis is not doing any service to Floridians by outlawing vaccine passports. They’re already in a pickle due to how DeSantis has been handling Covid overall, and his friend, the former guy, has been in the news recently for spreading Covid around Mar-A-Lago. If I had a Florida trip planned, I’d be cancelling it.
Many Florida businesses that planned to require vaccine passports for large gatherings just won’t have them. And what are the airlines supposed to do? They may be restricted from flying into many airports, especially international ones, as the vaccine passports start becoming widely used elsewhere. The world outside Florida could start returning to normal, leaving Floridians behind.
The whole thing is just so idiotic. Doesn’t DeSantis know that proof of other vaccinations for illnesses mush less likely to be spread are required there to attend school? Of course he does: he’s just making a selfish political statement to his crazy base.
But what I would be most concerned about if I were a Floridian is that the “anti-vaxxer” crowd would start migrating to Florida, preventing herd immunity from happening there and possibly even causing a surge in cases. Florida has a huge elderly population, and the older you are, the less protection the vaccine provides. DeSantis could very well be writing their death sentence.
Meanwhile, what are the rest of us supposed to do to protect ourselves from Floridians? It’s not like we can build a wall around Florida. DeSantis could well be endangering all of us, and at a minimum is delaying Americans’ return to normal life.
