(The Center Square) — Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Thursday that Florida bucked the “COVID-19 orthodoxy” and instead utilized “commonsense policies to become a refuge of sanity.”
DeSantis took a hard line on the effects of the COVID-19 lockdowns and the continuing pandemic-related policies such as vaccine mandates at a fiery news conference.
“We’re here today because three years ago started off the COVID response with the ‘15 days to slow the spread,’ and yet here we are three years later and they are still clinging to some of these failed policies,” DeSantis said, referring to measures like vaccine and mask mandates.
“A lot of the problems that we are facing now, if you look at the inflation, we’ve seen which has been devastating, if you look at the spike in interest rates which has had a huge impact on businesses and on home purchasing.” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also pointed out that Florida has bucked the trend of losing its workforce.
Education in the Sunshine State also suffered less than other states because DeSantis kept schools open. He said that school closures have seriously affected the education of children in states that had no schools open for months, a position backed up by test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
“The lockdown policies did not work and they were destructive, particularly in these states that clung to them.” DeSantis said.
The Republican governor now in his second term also criticized mask mandates after research has shown masks have little effect on stopping the spread of COVID-19.
DeSantis also noted that people who had already had COVID and now had natural immunity were still being coerced and badgered into getting the COVID vaccine when they did not need it.
State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapothe said the federal government continues to rely on fear and manipulation to peddle vaccines that don’t prevent transmission.
“A lot of the reasons they were worried about it coming from a lab was because our own government had funded gain-of-function research, you know, they’re sending money to Wuhan (China) and other places to do things that are very very risky, so we know it came from a lab.” DeSantis said.
DeSantis noted that the full origins of COVID-19 need to be disclosed.
DeSantis also pointed out that health experts who wanted mask mandates and lockdowns during 2020, turned a blind eye to all of the Black Lives Matter protests that swept across the country.
“Then you saw experts really beclown themselves on things like when you had the BLM protests…late May of 2020…at that point all these experts were always attacking Florida,” DeSantis said, adding that while they were forcing people to stay home, but said it was OK for people to gather in large groups for protests.
“Clearly it’s absurd to take that position from a scientific perspective, and so that was really showing that this was more about them advancing an agenda and about exerting control and that’s something that’s very very dangerous.” DeSantis said.
DeSantis noted that the federal government had colluded with Big Tech to silence dissent against the lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
“We were not gonna let this state descend into a Fauci-an dystopia, not on our watch.” DeSantis said, adding that right now in Florida, a grand jury is investigating issues with the COVID vaccines.
