DeSantis and Florida

[GURPS]

How You Can Tell the Delta Surge in Florida Is Waning



NBC Miami published a story with the headline, “Mentor to Young Men Among 15 MDCPS Staff to Die of COVID in Ten Days.” For reference, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools have 33,179 total full-time staff, which means 0.045% of the staff was affected. I am not providing this statistic to minimize any death. The only person profiled in the report who passed away is a tragic loss for the school and community.

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School started on August 23 in the district. NBC Miami covered the story on September 2. No one who passed away contracted it from the classroom. Yet NBC can only say it was “unknown” how the 15 staff members contracted COVID-19. What we do know is that most people develop symptoms between days four and five after exposure. Death usually occurs between 21 and 28 days after symptoms appear. For these individuals, their employment at the school and working with children had nothing to do with their passing.

There is no information about their age, vaccination status, or any preexisting condition they may have had. DeSantis has also made it incredibly easy for Floridians to access monoclonal antibodies if they are at high risk. There are 21 treatment clinics in the state, and DeSantis has done a month-long public relations push to build awareness. If these individuals were eligible, it is a tragedy they did not access the treatment.

 

[GURPS]

DeSantis Slams Fauci In Fiery Exchange At Press Conference



DeSantis made the remarks when a reporter began to ask, “Governor you recently said that unvaccinated individuals had no impact on numbers and Dr. Fauci was quoted saying that –”

“That’s not what I said. No, no, no, that’s not what I said,” DeSantis fired back. “Not that I ever expect to be quoted properly. What I said was, if you’re going to force vaccine mandates on people, just to understand that what the data is showing us about the vaccine, the data is showing us you’re much less likely to be hospitalized or die if you’re vaccinated. That is true. And I think you see it in the statistics.”

“However, the vaccinations have not created herd immunity,” DeSantis continued. “So if the idea is that having herd immunity, you force everyone to do this, and that will create a herd immunity, that has not happened. It’s still spreading. People who, I mean, obviously in Florida, we’re going down now which is great, but that’s not what the issue is, is it creating a herd immunity? Fauci also said if 50% were vaccinated, you would not see any surges anymore. Well, that isn’t true. Look at obviously the Sunbelt, look in the Pacific Northwest, look at Hawaii, huge surges that you’ve seen.”

 

[GURPS]

Florida Court Lifts Pause on Mask Mandate Ban, Ruling in Favor of DeSantis


The First District Court of Appeals in Florida ended the pause on the state’s school mask mandate ban in a decision on Friday. The measure is temporarily back in effect, and it is once again unlawful for Florida public schools to require students to wear masks in their facilities.

In the ruling, the court granted the State of Florida’s request to reinstate the stay lifted by Judge John Cooper’s Wednesday decision, which briefly permitted public schools to reimpose mask mandates, rejecting Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s previous appeal.

 

[GURPS]

DeSantis Fires Back At Biden: He Promised To End Pandemic And Now Cases 300% Higher, Policies Failing




“Well I would just say generally when you’re taking action that’s unconstitutional, that threatens the jobs of the people in my state, many, many thousands of jobs, I’m standing for them,” DeSantis responded. “We’re going to protect their jobs against federal overreach. This is a guy who criticizes the state of Florida for protecting parents’ rights. He says school boards should be able to eliminate parents’ rights and force five-year-old kids to wear masks all day. That’s what he thinks is appropriate government. Yet, here he comes from Washington, D.C. instituting an unprecedented mandate, which even his own people have acknowledged in the past is not constitutional. That’s not leadership.”

“And I think the problem I have with Joe Biden, more than anything, this guy doesn’t take responsibility for anything,” DeSantis continued. “He’s always trying to blame other people, blame other states. This is a guy that promised when he ran for president, that he would shut down the virus. If you look now there’s 300% more cases in this country today than a year ago when we had no vaccines at all. So his policies are not working.”

 

[GURPS]

Biden Administration Moves to Take Over Monoclonal Antibody Distribution


I have concerns. My chief problem is that the states that have embraced the treatment approach are red. I am worried that the new distribution plan might be weighted against such regions.

I am not the only one, either.

That move by President Biden triggered fears over the feds limiting supply of the therapy, according to a statement issued by DeSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw.
“It appears the Biden Administration is already breaking this crucial promise, by moving forward with new restrictions on the supply of monoclonal antibody treatment to Florida…We are working to ensure that the supply of monoclonal antibody treatment in Florida remains adequate to meet the needs of patients in our state,” she said.
In Florida, a private company called CourMed, has launched a “concierge” service that conveniently offers home delivery of the treatment, administered by nurses.
Derrick Miles, CourMed’s founder and CEO, said in an email to the Phoenix that he’s concerned about shortages but the company “can still provide our concierge service of monoclonal antibody infusion therapy in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties until supplies run out.”

 

[GURPS]

You Don't Say! Florida COVID Cases See Massive Drop for Third Consecutive Week






Earlier this week, DeSantis appointed a new surgeon general, Dr. Jospeh Ladapo, and he is a breath of fresh air. He is already sending the left over the edge because he is unflappable in his perspective. In his first press conference, he announced that the pandemic of fear was over. Florida’s public health response will focus on providing education and information. Lapado is a signatory to the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocates for focused protection. Lapado said he might disagree with some of the specific prescriptions but agrees with the principles. He also dismissed the idea of lockdowns.

When asked about vaccine mandates, Lapado said, “Vaccines are up to the person. There’s nothing special about them compared to any other preventive measure. So, absolutely great things about vaccines for COVID-19 are they prevent serious illness. Fantastic.” He added, “People get to make a choice about what they want to do with that information. The state should be promoting good health. And vaccination isn’t the only path to that.” Then he touched the third rail, “It’s been treated almost like a religion. That’s just senseless, right? There are lots of good pathways to health, vaccination’s not the only one. So, we support measures for good health. That’s vaccination, losing weight. it’s exercising more and eating more fruits and vegetables, everything.”

In his first official act, Lapado joined DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran to announce that the state would empower parents to decide whether they should take a healthy child out of school after a confirmed exposure to COVID-19. DeSantis said the forced quarantine of healthy children is both disruptive and a burden on families. Lapado added, “There’s not a single high-quality study that shows that any child has ever benefited from forced quarantining policies, but we have seen demonstrable and considerable harm to children. It’s important to respect the rights of parents.”

 

[GURPS]

DeSantis Directs His Secretary Of State To Investigate Facebook For ‘Alleged Election Interference’


“I hereby direct that your office immediately investigate this alleged election interference caused by Facebook through its whitelisting program – and any other previously undisclosed program within Facebook – in order to determine whether any violations of Florida’s election laws took place,” DeSantis said in a letter to Lee. “Your office should use all legal means to uncover any such violations, including but not limited to, issuing subpoenas, conducting witness interviews, reviewing all available information and consulting with law enforcement.”

DeSantis’ order follows an explosive report in The Wall Street Journal that alleged that Facebook gave preferential treatment to some of the platform’s elite users.

 

[HemiHauler]

DeSantis Directs His Secretary Of State To Investigate Facebook For ‘Alleged Election Interference’


“I hereby direct that your office immediately investigate this alleged election interference caused by Facebook through its whitelisting program – and any other previously undisclosed program within Facebook – in order to determine whether any violations of Florida’s election laws took place,” DeSantis said in a letter to Lee. “Your office should use all legal means to uncover any such violations, including but not limited to, issuing subpoenas, conducting witness interviews, reviewing all available information and consulting with law enforcement.”

DeSantis’ order follows an explosive report in The Wall Street Journal that alleged that Facebook gave preferential treatment to some of the platform’s elite users.

 

[GURPS]

Hapless, Terrified Dems Miss Every Time They Swing at DeSantis





The latest leftist stumble while attempting to kneecap DeSantis is an attack ad that massively backfired. Megan wrote about it yesterday:

Have you ever seen an attack ad go wrong? You’re about to. It took me a while to figure out if this was a sneaky ad made by the DeSantis campaign because it makes the governor of Florida look like such a hero. But then I realized that someone actually made this to hurt DeSantis. I don’t think it’s having the anticipated impact.
The “Remove Ron” Twitter account, which has over 130,000 followers, posted an ad with ominous music and miserable-looking people flying in an airplane that looks like a convict cargo plane. Everyone is masked and they all look like they’re there by force. As they enter Florida airspace, Governor DeSantis comes on their screens to give them a message.
“We are not doing any vaccine passports in the state of Florida,” he says. “We are not going to be bludgeoning people with restrictions and mandates and lockdowns or any of that stuff.” Meanwhile, scary images of riots and people being beaten by police are shown. It was at this point that I thought, “Oh, this is a brilliant ad! Way to go, DeSantis team.” And then I realized these video makers actually think it’s bad for him that he’s against Australian-style beat-downs for people not wearing masks. No, really!
The flight attendant then starts announcing, “You do not have to wear a mask! You do not have to get a vaccine!” (Sounds like heaven. When is this going to get negative for DeSantis?)

American liberals just don’t get that millions of us don’t live in terror of getting breathed on in public. That’s probably because, as Kevin wrote yesterday, the corrupt media isn’t exactly rushing to report on the fact that people all over the world are protesting the mask/vax Nazis.

Back to Megan’s post. I encourage you to read the whole thing and watch the ad. It really does make DeSantis look like a superhero for freedom-loving people. Megan sprinkles a few gems in there too.

 

[GURPS]

 

[Hijinx]

I wish we had a Republican Governor in Maryland .

 

[stgislander]

I wish we had a Republican Governor in Maryland .

Give any Rep Governor in MD a veto-proof Legislature. Until that time....

 

[GURPS]

CNN Anchor Says DeSantis Was Contacted For A Story. But His Press Secretary Has Receipts


Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried appeared on CNN to defend mask mandates and accuse DeSantis of hiding COVID-19 data. Bolduan claimed that CNN had contacted DeSantis’ office before Fried’s appearance and had not gotten a response.

DeSantis’ Press Secretary Christina Pushaw fired back on Twitter with a screenshot of CNN’s email, which was sent to the governor’s former spokesperson. (RELATED: White House’s ‘Misleading Rhetoric’ May Falsely Lead Americans To Think DeSantis Is Anti-Vaccine, Spox Says)

Pushaw said that the former spokesperson, Meredith Beatrice, left the position five months ago. The screenshot Pushaw posted showed an email addressed to Meredith from CNN correspondent Nick Valencia. Valencia said in the email that he was following up on a voicemail and asked for a statement in reaction to Fried’s press conference, where she said that masks are effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

 

[GURPS]

Florida Fines County $3.5M Over Vaccine Mandate


Florida sent a letter to Leon County administrator Vincent Long on Wednesday notifying him that the county has been found to have violated state law 714 times and would be fined $3.57 million. Long said he would fight the fines and “enforce its rights” against the state.

“By way of media reports, Leon County was made aware of a notice from the Florida Department of Health regarding the County’s vaccination requirement,” Long told Fox 4. “There is a genuine disagreement about the applicability of the statute and rule, and the County will enforce its rights using any remedies available at law, if necessary.”

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis blasted Leon County on September 13 for firing 14 employees who refused to show proof of vaccination.

“We are going to protect Florida jobs. We are not going to let people be fired because of a vaccine mandate,” DeSantis said at the time, according to Fox 4. “You don’t just cast aside people who’ve been serving faithfully over this issue over, what’s basically a personal choice on their individual health. We cannot let these folks be cast aside. We cannot allow their jobs to be destroyed and their families and livelihoods, potentially, to be destroyed as well.”

 

[GURPS]

DeSantis's critics fall silent as Florida's COVID-19 cases drop

Florida’s COVID-19 response has been described as reckless, dangerous, and anti-science.

Its Republican governor weathered months of scorn for loosening pandemic restrictions ahead of other state leaders. Its case counts, when on the rise, are often cited by critics as evidence that the entire Republican approach to managing the virus has failed.

But drops in Florida’s case counts invite a fraction of the attention.

New infections per 100,000 residents dropped to 12 over the past week, according to the New York Times coronavirus tracker. Over the past 14 days, cases dropped by 48%.

Other states with far more expansive pandemic restrictions are seeing COVID-19 continue to spread at faster rates than Florida.

 

[GURPS]

Florida Has The Fastest Job Growth Rate In The Nation, Significantly Faster Than National Average


Florida’s job market is recovering significantly faster than the national average, according to new figures.

The United States economy gained 194,000 jobs in the month of September, severely missing economists’ expectations. However, Florida alone gained 84,500 jobs during the same period — leading the nation in terms of the largest percentage increase.


According to a statement from the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL):

Florida’s economy accelerated in September 2021, growing at three times the rate over the month compared to the nation. Overall for the month, Florida gained 84,500 total jobs, including nearly 73,000 private-sector jobs. This month marks 17 months of private-sector job growth, increasing by 5.6% over the year. Florida has experienced this magnitude of monthly private sector job growth on only four other occasions in the past 30 years.

 

[GURPS]

Florida School District Finally Drops Mask Mandate After 8-Year-Old Gets Suspended 38 Times For Refusing To Comply


The district mask order was repealed on November 8, following a ruling from Division of Administrative Hearings Judge Newman which declared the Department of Health’s Emergency Rule 64DER21-15 valid.

“Based on a new development at the State level, the School District will be moving to an opt-out status for facial coverings for students in all grade levels beginning this Monday, November 8, rather than on November 15 as you were originally informed,” the Palm Beach County school district told parents on November 6. “A ruling yesterday by Division of Administrative Hearings Judge Newman found the Department of Health’s Emergency Rule 64DER21-15 to be valid, therefore, a parent face covering opt-out will be reinstated effective Monday.”

Before the ruling, second-grader Fiona Lashells became the public face of the mask war, and more generally, parental rights. The child even made an appearance alongside Gov. DeSantis on “Fox & Friends” earlier this month.

 

[Hijinx]

If we want an economic recovery we have to get6 back to normal without masks and mandates, and without paying people to stay home.

 

[GURPS]

Republicans get a win in OSHA withdrawal during Florida special session


The Florida House and Senate are holding special sessions this week to debate COVID-19 related mandates.
Florida could become the first state to pass a law fining businesses and hospitals that comply with President Biden’s vaccine mandate. That session began on Monday, but there’s no telling how long it could take for this bill to become law.
Republican legislators also want to pull out of OSHA, the federal organizations that set relations for businesses and create a separate, state-run, business oversight committee.

 

[GURPS]

Doctors’ ‘free speech’ bill raises public safety questions


Rep. Brad Drake, a Republican from Eucheeanna, has filed so-called “free speech” legislation that would require the state or its licensing boards to prove by clear and convincing evidence that a health care provider’s social media posts caused harm to a current patient before revoking — or threatening to revoke — a license, certificate, or registration of a health care practitioner.

House bill 687 allows the state to sanction doctors for social media posts that caused direct physical harm to current patients. But in order to prevail the state or licensing board must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the posts caused the harm.

The Florida Department of Health or its licensure boards could also be liable for up to $1.5 million to any doctor who suffers direct or indirect damages as a result of an unsuccessful regulatory effort.

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It also comes as medical societies have threatened to sanction providers who promote misinformation regarding the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine or promote treatments that are proven ineffective such as chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.
To that end, as drafted, the bill also applies to the American Association of Physician Specialists and the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians.

Attempts to contact Drake for this story were unsuccessful.