Report: Florida Doctors Think Ron DeSantis Is a National Embarrassment

As COVID-19 instances, hospitalizations, and deaths surge across the nation, one state particularly stands out as a spot you actually don’t wish to be if you wish to keep away from contracting the coronavirus: the state recently infected with a strain of Trumps, Florida. On Monday, the Sunshine State reported 10,389 hospitalizations, probably the most statewide at any level in the course of the pandemic, together with the peak of it in spring 2020. That adopted greater than 21,000 new infections on Friday, and the information that Florida now reportedly accounts for roughly one in 5 instances nationally. And native docs are fairly certain they know who responsible!

Per the Independent:

Florida docs say they’re “indignant and ashamed” over governor Ron DeSantis’s response to the resurgent coronavirus. The high-profile Republican has repeatedly criticized federal public well being steerage and vowed to not institute new lockdowns or masks mandates, even because the state turns into the nationwide epicenter of the virus, with the delta variant ravaging the unvaccinated segments of its inhabitants.

“Whereas hospitals in our state had been filling up, DeSantis was shouting about ‘Freedom over Faucism,’” Bernard Ashby, a Miami heart specialist who leads the state’s Committee to Shield Well being Care, instructed WLRN. “If DeSantis had been as involved about stopping COVID-19 unfold as he was about arising with these intelligent jabs about Dr. Fauci, we’d not be on this place.”

Final month, DeSantis’s reelection marketing campaign introduced koozies and T-shirts bearing the phrase “Don’t Fauci My Florida” as his state started to see among the highest hospitalizations, new infections, and deaths per capita within the nation, claiming that Florida’s economic system would have been in the bathroom if it had “adopted Fauci.” The gadgets had been listed alongside anti-mask merch printed with the DeSantis quote, “How the hell am I going to have the ability to drink a beer with a masks on?” Whereas the governor’s workplace swears the state is in nice form, and that the current spike is merely a “seasonal” blip, the info appears to point in any other case.

Florida is now the nationwide middle of the delta-fueled COVID resurgence. Instances are up 50% week over week, with 110,000 new ones this week alone, ranges not seen since January when the vaccine wasn’t extensively obtainable. The state has a positivity price of 18.1%, and extra individuals hospitalized than some other state in America.

“There isn’t a increased danger space in america than we’re seeing right here,” Dr. Aileen Marty, a Florida Worldwide College infectious illness knowledgeable, instructed the Miami CBS affiliate. “The numbers that we’re seeing are unbelievable, simply unbelievably scary.”

However, DeSantis has pledged to proceed preventing lockdowns, masks mandates, and some other measures that might assist cease the unfold of the virus. “It is vitally essential that we are saying unequivocally ‘no’ to lockdowns, no to high school closures, no to restrictions and no to mandates,” DeSantis stated final week. He’s additionally threatened to withhold funds from college districts that require college students to put on masks.

Blasting DeSantis’s seemingly pro-death stance, agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried, who’s operating for governor as a Democrat, told Politico: “To say it’s not as unhealthy because it was within the peak of the pandemic final 12 months is inaccurate, dishonest, and harmful. Issues are the worst they’ve ever been within the state all through this pandemic with Florida now main the nation per capita in hospitalizations.” Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, who can also be difficult DeSantis, stated final week the governor has “blood on his fingers.” Which he sort of does!

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