Gov. DeSantis again hits ‘COVID theater,’ reups strong stances on vaccines, masks for students

Ron DeSantis. Image via AP.

On Monday in Plant City, Gov. Ron DeSantis continued his ongoing crusade against “COVID theater” relative to minors in the state, stressing opposition to mandatory masks and vaccines for the youth.

In remarks just hours after Surgeon General Joe Ladapo said no-go to recommending pediatric COVID-19 vaccines during a roundtable with the Governor, DeSantis affirmed the state guidance opposing recommending vaccines for minors.

“I think the Surgeon General was really concerned that this was something that was being pushed on people,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis also said the state would not blindly accept guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), saying the CDC adheres to “political science.”

“I think a lot of people have lost confidence in the CDC,” DeSantis noted. “I think that’s a huge majority of Americans that have lost confidence.”

The Governor also cast a fresh round of aspersions toward masking, again defending what turned out to be a controversial decision to tell a group of high school students that they didn’t need to mask up.

“This was my event to give money to this,” DeSantis said. “And I go into the room. And no adult had a mask on … but all the kids had it on.”

“It seemed to me that someone told them you had to do this, and I just wanted to make sure they understood that with me, you don’t have to do that,” DeSantis said. “You should absolutely feel free to take it off.”

DeSantis continued in this vein for several minutes, continuing to land potential soundbite lines: “I’m sick of the adults telling these kids that they’re somehow putting people at risk by not putting a piece of cloth over their face. They’re not.”

The Governor offered a similar narrative last week during a Fox News interview with Tucker Carlson, during an interview when DeSantis rejected the characterization of his tone as “bullying,” saying that real bullying involved actions like “locking kids out of school” and “kicking people out of work because of vaccine mandates.”