TELLAHASSY — In a broad attack on efforts to combat COVID-19, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday called on the Republican-controlled legislature to place a permanent Florida ban on mask mandates in schools and vaccine requirements for local governments and businesses.
The measures were enacted during a special session called by DeSantis in late 2021, when he was battling several Florida school districts, private businesses and the federal government under President Joe Biden that were taking steps they deemed necessary to reduce transmission of COVID-19.
The authorization ban approved by Florida lawmakers at the time is scheduled to expire in June.
But DeSantis wants to keep it on the books and raise the specter that efforts to reinstate it could emanate from places like California, which already raised the statewide requirements nearly a year ago.
Before taking to the stage, DeSantis said in a rally-like speech to a crowd at a theater in Panama City, an employee of the governor’s office ordered people to wave banners bearing the message, “flag no censorship.”
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Sheer madness: DeSantis still says mandates conflict with liberty
DeSantis continued to promote his defense of Florida’s freedom. “It has required us over the past few years to stand up against the great institutions of our society: the bureaucracy, the medical establishment, the outdated media and even the President of the United States who have been working together to impose a biomedical security state on society,” he said.
For about an hour, DeSantis and other invited speakers questioned and masked the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, condemning what speakers said were ongoing efforts in other states to bring back masks or require college students or employees to get booster shots.
“It’s just crazy we’re still doing it,” DeSantis said.
The deadline Florida faces on banning the mandate of COVID-19 will bring the issue before the legislature when it convenes in March. But it also gives DeSantis, who is widely seen as the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, a chance to push back against the Biden administration.
COVID-19 vaccines and masks are also a hot topic among many Republican voters nationally. The Kaiser Family Foundation’s COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor reports that only 37% of Republicans say they have been vaccinated and boosted, compared to 74% of voters who identify as Democrat.
More than 84,000 Floridians have died from COVID-19, while the state has reported nearly 7.4 million cases since the start of the pandemic.
Florida Doctors appears with DeSantis
Among the party on Tuesday were two doctors from the area: Dr. John Ward, a dermatologist in Panama City who promotes “natural immunity” on his Twitter account, and another, Dr. Tim Boyett, a radiologist at Gulf Breeze, who avoided the vaccine but It was also helped by what he said was a “three-day treatment regimen,” which he says has worked for other patients battling COVID-19.
US Rep. Neil Dunn (R-Panama City), who is also a physician, praised the governor’s approach.
Among those who joined DeSantis was Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladabo, who was recently criticized by colleagues at the University of Florida Medical School for their findings of flawed research that led to the state health department issuing guidance discouraging COVID-19 vaccines for men. Those under the age of 40. , citing potential heart risks found by the department.
The governor’s office rejected the criticism.
“There’s a lot of crazy out there,” Ladabo said of the mask recommendations that have come from state and federal governments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ladabo’s Surgeon General mocks ca
He and DeSantis also mocked a California law that allows regulators to punish doctors for spreading false information about COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
“They should be allowed to say what they think, and they should not be forced or fundamentally afraid of feeling like they can’t express themselves,” said Ladabo.
DeSantis agreed and said he wants state lawmakers to include a new ban against any proposals that could result in regulatory penalties for doctors who question vaccines or masks in Florida.
“Florida is going to become the state where if a quality doctor gets kicked out of California, that’s the number one place you want people to go,” DeSantis said.
John F. Kennedy is a correspondent in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport