A.G. Gancarski
Gov. Ron DeSantis and other leaders spoke Monday in Alachua County, making a fervent case against mask and vaccine mandates, with the Governor pledging action against wayward local jurisdictions.
Specifically, DeSantis has imposed a $5,000 fine for cities and counties requiring vaccines for public employees “for every single violation” in cases like the one currently being proposed in Gainesville.
DeSantis teased action last week. His comments Monday in Newberry both addressed local mandates in the state, and the larger national mandate advanced last week from President Joe Biden, conflating the two as targets.
Regarding local proposals, a fired-up DeSantis vowed he was “not going to let people be fired because of a vaccine mandate.”
“While a lot of these politicians were on Zoom, these folks were out there protecting us, day in and day out,” DeSantis said about first responders, defending vaccine abstinence as a “personal choice” about one’s health.
“It’s really about using government power and control to mandate much more than it is the underlying medical issues that are involved,” DeSantis said.
The Governor also contended natural immunity offers protections that make vaccines redundant.
“If you’re following science, you acknowledge this natural immunity, but instead they ignore it and force somebody who already has protection to take a medical treatment they may not like,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also spotlighted the Biden federal mandates as “even more problematic” and showing the President’s “arrogance.”
“They go back and find some statute from decades ago, some obscure OSHA rule about toxic substances in the workplace, and act like that would be pretext to throw people out of work,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also critiqued Biden’s listening and empathy skills but vowed to stand up to the President.
“He is so dismissive of people who disagree with him,” DeSantis complained, but said, “governors like me are designed to be on the front lines of pushing back when a President is overreaching.”
DeSantis also bashed Biden on booster shots, saying the President’s position was an unconstitutional slippery slope.
“Could be a situation where Fauci says six months from now, ‘you have to get one,'” the Governor mused.
“This is all political, all about using government. And it’s wrong,” DeSantis warned.
DeSantis invoked 9/11 in his comments also, implying vaccine mandates proposed around 9/11 disrespected first responders.
It’s “frustrating to see that not respected more,” DeSantis said. “You’re threatening to take someone’s job away. You’re not respecting the people that are working hard to keep us safe.”
“I will say that protecting people’s jobs, standing up for first responders, that’s like page three of the Governor’s manual.”
DeSantis’ voice trailed off. But the point was made.
The Governor had copious support on hand.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “this is about very simply how much power our government officials have when we have never given them that power to do something like this.”
A fired-up Moody blasted “city officials who say they are going to fire city employees if they don’t take the vaccine.”
“It is unlawful,” Moody said. “It is unconscionable that we would trust these folks to throw themselves in front of a bullet for other people, but we don’t trust them to make a decision for their own safety. It is unconscionable.”
Moody vowed to back locals who are having their jobs threatened over not getting vaccines and speculated that vaccine mandates would only worsen workplace attrition for first responders.
CFO Jimmy Patronis was likewise peeved.
“I got my vaccine. But I ain’t going to support no damned mandate,” he said.
12 comments
PeterH
September 13, 2021 at 12:59 pm
RON DESANTIS CULTURE WARS ADD NOTHING TO OUR ENJOYMENT OR PARTICIPATION IN THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE ….. and Ron DeSantis can’t admit he’s made a mistake.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been untouchable for the past year as he commanded the Republican culture wars to become heir apparent to Donald Trump. The latest coronavirus surge is starting to change that.
FACT:
In the past five weeks alone 50,000 Florida residents have died of Covid because of Ron DeSantis intransigence. Most of these deaths occurred in the unvaccinated.
Covid infection rates continue to climb as the state faces shortages of health care staff, morgue space and even oxygen for patients. About 16,000 people are hospitalized. 14 temporary refrigerated morgues are arriving to handle the ever accumulation of dead bodies. Crematoriums can’t dispose of Covid bodies fast enough.
Child infection rates have shot up. School districts — even in Republican strongholds — have rebelled against DeSantis’ anti-mask mandates. And cruise lines are resisting DeSantis’ vaccine passport ban. Even his recent poll numbers are slipping.
The Florida voters can put an end to these purpose driven culture wars. Real conservatives should join the Lincoln Project and deny Republicans the votes they need to perpetuate their ruination of America.
PeterH
September 13, 2021 at 1:58 pm
My typo:
Correction 5,000 deaths in the past five weeks. Florida is approaching 50,000 Covid deaths since the start of the pandemic!😄
Alex
September 13, 2021 at 1:07 pm
Yeah the nerve of these liberals huh?
How dare they violate my right to endanger myself and everyone around me.
All hail the new America!
Trumpistan is the Thousand Year Idiocracy!
short term property
September 13, 2021 at 1:27 pm
nice website.
FP Monitor
September 13, 2021 at 2:13 pm
It’s a big mistake is to respond to anything Tom posts. He’s an ignorant Trumpster hack simply looking for attention. Do yourself and all of us a big favor …… ignore all of his return comments. Maybe the internet troll will go away.
Vita Vicarious
September 13, 2021 at 5:45 pm
Florida…right to work state…’nuff said. Maybe there should be a test of basic state laws before you can run for public office. Or be able to do a Google search.
Aimee Hall
September 13, 2021 at 6:15 pm
Here are 7 at-home jobs that pay at least $100/day. And there’s quite the variety too! Some of these work-at-home jobs are more specialized,JHG others are jobs that anyone can do. They all pay at least $3000/month, but some pay as much as $10,000.
GO HOME PAGE HERE FOR MORE DETAILS… http://amazingjobs.tk/
Sean Stickles
September 13, 2021 at 7:38 pm
Thank you Mr. DeSantis. I’m glad someone is standing up for our rights. I think it’s ridiculous that no one even mentions the normal immunity which is the one your body produces when you have fought off the virus which is 8 times more effective than the vaccine.
I think everyone one has a right to choose and if you want to get the vaccine great and if you don’t want it that’s fine too.
Alex
September 13, 2021 at 8:46 pm
I encourage you to go out and intentionally get covid.
Just make sure you 100% quarantine immediately after exposure so you can’t infect someone else. Promise?
And the truth is getting vaccinated after risking your life imparts still better protection.
Good luck in your adventure.
Tom Palmer
September 13, 2021 at 8:28 pm
See you in court, governor.
Terry Pride, PCA
September 13, 2021 at 8:30 pm
Perhaps Guv deSantis hasn’t had time to read a recent study, which found that 36% of Americans who recovered from a diagnosed case of Covid ** had no ** antibodies.
Additionally, recovery from one strain (even if you’re among the 64% who produce antibodies) says nothing about your immune response to a different strain.
E-G, you recover from Alpha & are later exposed to Delta – it’s very possible you will contract Covid, & you may be one of the otherwise healthy patients who are hospitalized, or perhaps you carry it with no symptoms & infect other people, or have mild symptoms but develop Long-Covid, & are unable to work for weeks or months.
Any one of these outcomes could result.
As a health care professional working with elderly clients, I was vaccinated as soon as I could be.
Delta is far more contagious than Alpha, which was already more infectious than the original strain of SARS-CoV-2; worse, Delta carriers have a viral load that’s 1,000 times that of Alpha carriers, plus if you develop symptoms, Delta carriers break with symptoms 3 to 5 days LATER than Alpha carriers; during that delay between getting it & “feeling” sick, they continue to expose everyone they meet.
This vastly increases the risk & rate of spread.
For anyone who can be vaccinated, it’s important to do so, not only for your own sake, but your family, friends, neighbors, & community.
Those who have health issues that make the vaccine impossible, must depend upon the rest of us to help protect them; so do children under 12, who have no approved vaccine.
Eve Wright
September 14, 2021 at 4:54 pm
Here are 7 at-home jobs that pay at least $100/day. And there’s quite the variety too! Some of these work-at-home jobs are more specialized, others are jobs that anyone can do.KJH They all pay at least $3000/month, but some pay as much as $10,000.
GO HOME PAGE HERE FOR MORE DETAILS… http://amazingjobs.tk/
Comments are closed.