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21,000 deaths later, do-nothing DeSantis takes a COVID victory lap | Editorial
By Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board
Orlando Sentinel |
Oct 29, 2021 at 6:00 AM
Florida’s summer of suffering was also a summer of silence for Ron DeSantis.
The governor had nearly nothing to say about his state’s lengthy run as No. 1 in the nation in COVID cases, No. 1 in hospitalizations and No. 1 in deaths.
Instead, the governor held almost daily news conferences intended to burnish his presidential bona fides among the MAGA crowd, and boost his presidential ambitions.
Through it all, the governor pointedly ignored the elephant in the room: That Florida — his state, his responsibility — was the epicenter for a deadly new COVID outbreak caused by the delta variant.
With numbers finally falling, DeSantis now has the gall, the nerve, to take a victory lap.
“Florida Reaches Lowest Case Rate in the Nation,” trumpeted the headline of a Wednesday news release, which went on to say, “As a result of Governor Ron DeSantis’ leadership and our data-driven approach free of mandates, the State of Florida has one of the lowest COVID-19 daily average case rates in the last 7 days per 100,000 residents in the United States.”
Florida led the nation in case rates for much of the summer, and our governor was silent. Well, not totally silent. He did rail against mask and vaccine mandates, measures intended to prevent people from falling ill.
Now, a governor whose sole contribution to fighting the outbreak was to expand antibody treatments for people after they got infected is taking full credit for the decline in cases.
As others have already noted, it’s like a firefighter tossing a bucket of water on a house that’s already been burned to the ground and then declaring victory.
What a fraud. What a phony.
It’s so transparent, but far too many gullible Floridians and complicit politicians are going to buy and echo DeSantis’ savior rubbish. Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez already has.
Here’s an actual fact: Between the start of July and the end of October, about 21,000 people died of COVID in Florida, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Those four deadly, tragic months accounted for one in every three of the total COVID deaths — nearly 60,000 victims — since the pandemic began 20 months ago.
Compare that to California, a warm-weather state with nearly twice the population of Florida and a governor who believes in public health. California had just 8,600 deaths during that same summer surge, according to Johns Hopkins, representing about 11% of its total COVID deaths since the pandemic began.
Another fact: At one point during the surge Florida had more than 17,000 people hospitalized with COVID. And California, with twice the population? Its peak was fewer than 9,000.
Florida’s hospitals were under siege, prompting the head of the Florida Hospital Association — Mary Mayhew, DeSantis’ one-time secretary of health — to label the surge a “crisis,” with half the patients between 25 and 55 years old.
As we’ve said before, DeSantis was right to ramp up the availability of antibody treatment sites for Floridians. It probably saved lives and prevented some hospitalizations.
But the governor is now trying to draw a direct and dishonest line between those treatments and both falling hospitalizations and cases.
Antibody treatments can be effective at keeping already infected people from falling seriously ill, but they have nothing to do with the plummeting number of positive coronavirus cases.
That’s what’s driving the dramatic fall in hospitalizations, not antibody treatments given to already infected people. Johns Hopkins charts show the rise and fall of cases and hospitalizations are a mirror image.
There’s a lot DeSantis might have done to legitimately claim credit for saving lives and preventing suffering.
He could have made another major push for Floridians to get vaccinated. But he didn’t, possibly because his Republican Party is rapidly aligning itself with the anti-vaxxer movement. Plus, he hired a surgeon general who’s a vaccine skeptic. DeSantis is now hesitating on booster shots, which may account for why Florida ranks No. 33 among states in seniors getting boosters.
He could have given local governments, including school boards, the flexibility to make their own decisions about mandatory masking based on local conditions. But he didn’t, choosing instead to make masks a cultural wedge issue.
He could have at least acknowledged the COVID crisis his state was facing and urged his constituents to act thoughtfully and responsibly. But he didn’t, calculating that ignorance was political bliss.
And now, the do-nothing governor is trying to claim credit for this surge coming to an end.
It is DeSantis’ final and most essential command — to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. How Orwellian.
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DeSantis proposes a new civilian military force in Florida that he would control
Anchor Muted Background
By Steve Contorno, CNN
Updated 9:47 AM ET, Fri December 3, 2021
St, Petersburg, Florida (CNN)Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to reestablish a World War II-era civilian military force that he, not the Pentagon, would control.
DeSantis pitched the idea Thursday as a way to further support the Florida National Guard during emergencies, like hurricanes. The Florida National Guard has also played a vital role during the pandemic in administering Covid-19 tests and distributing vaccines.
But in a nod to the growing tension between Republican states and the Biden administration over the National Guard, DeSantis also said this unit, called the Florida State Guard, would be "not encumbered by the federal government." He said this force would give him "the flexibility and the ability needed to respond to events in our state in the most effective way possible." DeSantis is proposing bringing it back with a volunteer force of 200 civilians, and he is seeking $3.5 million from the state legislature in startup costs to train and equip them.
States have the power to create defense forces separate from the national guard, though not all of them use it. If Florida moves ahead with DeSantis' plan to reestablish the civilian force, it would become the 23rd active state guard in the country, DeSantis' office said in a press release, joining California, Texas and New York. These guards are little-known auxiliary forces with origins dating back to the advent of state militias in the 18th century. While states and the Department of Defense share control of the National Guard, state guards are solely in the power of a governor.
The proposal from DeSantis comes on the heels of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's directive warning that National Guard members who refuse to get vaccinated against the coronavirus will have their pay withheld and barred from training. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, had requested an exemption for guard members in his state, which Austin denied.
Democrats in Florida immediately expressed alarm at DeSantis' announcement. US Rep. Charlie Crist, who is running as a Democrat to challenge the governor in 2022, tweeted, "No Governor should have his own handpicked secret police."
State Sen. Annette Taddeo, another gubernatorial candidate, wrote on Twitter that DeSantis was a "wannabe dictator trying to make his move for his own vigilante militia like we've seen in Cuba."
The Florida State Guard was created in 1941 during World War II as a temporary force to fill the void left behind when the Florida National Guard was deployed to assist in the US combat efforts. It was disbanded after the war ended, but the authority for a governor to establish a state defense force remained.
"Reestablishing the Florida State Guard will allow civilians from all over the state to be trained in the best emergency response techniques and have the ability to mobilize very, very quickly," DeSantis said during a visit to Pensacola on Thursday.
State guards are typically deployed to respond during a disaster, though governors have found other reasons to call them into action.
In 2015, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott used the Texas state guard to monitor federal military exercises in his state, responding to what was at the time a fast-growing conspiracy theory that the federal government was using Walmart parking lots to prepare for a future state of martial law. Abbott said the guards were just collecting information to keep Texans safe during the multi-week exercises.
Florida law authorizes the governor to maintain a defense force as "necessary to assist the civil authorities in maintaining law and order," meaning DeSantis would have another force to respond to unrest that may erupt in the future. DeSantis swiftly deployed the Florida National Guard to major cities after protests and violence broke out in response to the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota.
DeSantis has also stationed Florida National Guard troops at the Texas-Mexico border and sent them to Washington, DC, to help protect the US Capitol during the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
The announcement on Thursday came during a broader rollout of DeSantis' plan to bolster Florida's National Guard, which included $100 million in funding proposals to establish three new armories, build a new headquarters for the National Guard Counter Drug Program and provide support for Florida National Guardsmen seeking higher-education degrees.
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‘Free to do as you are told’: Florida Republicans advance wave of draconian bills
Richard Luscombe in Miami
Mon, January 31, 2022, 1:00 AM
It has been a long and painful month in the Florida legislature for opponents of the state’s Trumpist governor Ron DeSantis and his loyal band of rightwing Republicans. A slew of bills has advanced attacking everything from diversity rights, abortion protections and free speech in schools, in addition to a proposal that would legally shield white people from feeling “discomfort” over the state’s racist past.
And last Wednesday, an anti-masker physician, hand picked by the governor and apathetic about the value of Covid-19 vaccines, was backed unanimously by a Republican senate panel as the next surgeon-general following a walk-out by Democratic politicians frustrated by Joseph Ladapo’s evasiveness.
To hear DeSantis tell it, the “freedom state” of Florida is merely following the will of a populist citizenry in defying the perceived tyranny of the federal government, determined to protect liberty in the face of a deadly pandemic that has claimed more than 64,000 of their fellow residents, and standing up against the “indoctrination” of children.
Yet as the possible 2024 presidential candidate presses ahead with turning Florida into what critics see as his own conservative fiefdom – a de facto Trumpistan of the south with an “Orwellian-sounding” election police force – DeSantis is finding opposition beginning to harden.
More of the state’s 21 million people, which elected him in 2018 by barely 32,000 votes, appears displeased at the creeping authoritarianism and is keen to show DeSantis – who will be seeking re-election in November – that Florida is not the solidly red state he believes it to be.
Those voices come from parents, doctors, LBGTQ+ activists, proponents of voting rights and others who will be affected if many of the Republican bills, as expected, become law.
“People do not like the authoritarian nature of this governor and the way that he has weaponized fear between his constituents to try to curry favor with his base,” said Brandon Wolf, development manager and spokesperson for Equality Florida.
“And I think you’re going to see that show up at the polls. I know people get concerned that maybe Florida is gone forever. But let me tell you we fully intend to mobilize and show up for our communities in the election cycle.”
Wolf pointed to several areas where he said DeSantis’s moves were gaining little traction.
“Florida is a beautifully diverse state. I live in downtown Orlando, which has folks from all walks of life, different races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities. We all live in this wonderful tapestry that is central Florida,” he said.
“I can tell you that the things that concern people here are not the conversations that are happening in Tallahassee. That rent went up 29% in 2021, that Florida is leading the country in increases in housing prices, people are concerned the governor has essentially made Covid-19 a political battleground.
“Yet the legislature is singularly focused on legislating as if they won by a margin of 99 to one in 2018, as if they have a total mandate by which they can control people’s lives. It’s disgraceful and disappointing.”
The issues that Republicans see as a priority for Florida are red meat to DeSantis’s conservative base. They include the 15-week abortion ban bill, which received a chaotic hearing on Thursday, and moves to give parents more say over classroom curriculum and control of school libraries. In Polk county this week, education officials went from school to school pulling 16 books flagged by a conservative parents’ group as inappropriate, including Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 bestseller The Kite Runner.
They include bills to strengthen the governor’s fierce anti-immigrant stance by locking out from state or local government business any company involved in the transportation of undocumented migrants.
And two healthcare bills have been introduced in the Republican-dominated Florida legislature that opponents say further vilifies and isolates the LBGTQ community. One, touted as the vulnerable child protection act, would criminalize professionals who provide gender-affirming medical care to minors; the other would allow any medical professional the right to refuse treatment or procedures including gender affirming surgery or abortions on moral grounds.
“It doesn’t deny their right to access that procedure, but also protects the individual who has a conscience reason they don’t want to perform it,” the bill’s sponsor, Republican state senator Dennis Baxley, told the Sun-Sentinel.
The proposal that has caused perhaps the most outrage is the parental rights in education bill, the so-called Don’t Say Gay bill that would prohibit elementary schools from discussing sexuality and gender identity other than in an unspecified “age or developmentally appropriate” settings, and would allow parents to sue.
“It’s going to effectively erase LBGTQ students and families and LBGTQ history by banning classroom discussion,” said Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democratic state representative who opposed the measure vigorously in the legislature.
“If a fourth-grader wants to come into the classroom, they’ve written an essay about their two dads, they want to present that essay to the class to talk about who they are or who their family is, the school is going to shut it down?”
Wolf, meanwhile, sees a straight line from the flurry of reactionary legislative action to DeSantis’s own political ambitions.
“These bills don’t live in silos. It’s easy if you look from the outside to see this scattershot of legislation and see them as individualized, that an abortion ban may not be tied to the Don’t Say Gay bill, which may not be tied to the license to discriminate in healthcare bill,” he said.
“But the truth is they are all connected. And the thing that connects them is the concerted attempt by Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies to push themselves to the right of Donald Trump and set DeSantis up to run for president in 2024.
“In Florida you are free, but only free to do and say as you are told.”
Lauren Book, a state senator representing parts of Broward, Florida’s bluest county, led a walkout of Democratic colleagues at this week’s confirmation hearing for the polarizing Ladapo as Florida’s surgeon general, after he repeatedly refused to say if vaccines were effective in the fight against Covid-19. His views appear to echo those of DeSantis, who has feuded often and loudly with the Biden administration over the pandemic, and banned mask and vaccine mandates in Florida.
“21 million Floridians deserve more than a mouthpiece for the governor, than talking sound bites that sound good and suit a narrative,” Book told CNN. Her criticism was echoed by a group of prominent Florida physicians, who accused DeSantis and Ladapo of “espousing policies contrary to the evidence”.
Jabari Hosey, president of the education advocacy group Families for Safe Schools, said that the actions of DeSantis and Republican allies, particularly in banning Covid safety measures, do not match the wishes of the majority of parents and guardians of Florida’s 2.7 million school-age children.
“He’s representing a small, loud group of parents,” he said. “We feel omitted and it’s kind of a punch to the gut when he’s selecting small, far-right groups of folks that kind of determine his legislative decision making.
“Creating these bills like Don’t Say Gay is a dog whistle, and also a suppression tactic, a way to force us not to talk about these things and therefore not accept them. It’s scary for us, parents who don’t agree with this, and we just really believe we are the majority and we want to move forward, not backwards.”
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