Ron DeSantis, Please take a moment from your vacation to reassure Floridians amid a scary COVID spike

SHow are you, Ron.

Your press secretary says you are on vacation with your wife and three children.

If that’s the case, you can certainly still take a moment to reassure your constituents that you haven’t abandoned them in the election. record increase of new COVID-19 cases.

On a late Thursday afternoon moment, it looked like you had turned up at a bagel shop. A photo on your Twitter account shows you smiling at four employees.

“Had some great bagels from Bagelicious Deli & Bakery in Ocala,” your tweet announced.

But it turns out that the photo was actually taken on December 17, right before your last public appearance. It was the press conference where you and your anti-mask surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, touted the value of monoclonal antibodies and proclaimed “Early Treatment Saves Lives”.

The daily number of new COVID cases had started to increase from 1,477 to 8,785 in the previous two weeks. But neither you nor Ladapo have said much about minimizing and preventing Floridians needing treatment in the first place.

That was the last time you and Ladapo appeared in public. You made an appearance on Fox News on December 19, where you revealed that you chose not to use the booster.

“I did whatever I did, the shot was normal, and at the end of the day it was everyone’s personal decision about what they wanted to do,” you tell Maria Bartiromo.

You don’t say anything because the daily number of new COVID cases has increased from 20,194 to 31,622. It hit a surprising 77,848 on Thursday and looks set to continue rising. And during that time, you are not seen directly.

Among the things people might ask is why did you shut down state-run COVID testing sites in May, saying they were more than necessary.

You tell the press: “Our view is that this is common throughout society right now so people obviously have a chance to take the test.

With the sudden surge triggered by the Omicron variant around the time you’re out of sight, the frantic need for testing has outstripped the capacity of doctors, private pharmacies, and local health departments. People waited in line for five hours or more, sometimes only to be told to come back the next day.

“Our residents — all Florida residents — should be outraged,” declared Orlando County Mayor Jerry Demings. “They should ask: Where is our state now? Where is our governor? Where is Ron DeSantis now? ”

You, Ron, gave no response. But a Florida Department of Health spokesman confirmed in an email that all is well.

“As of today, as a result of a partnership between the Orange County Health Department and the Orange County government, An email,” said spokesman Weesam Khoury.

The cry “Where is Ron?” was taken up by many other officials. They are not surprised to include State Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who hopes to become the next governor.

“Everybody enjoys some downtime, with [their] families, especially on vacation, but Floridians across Florida are having their own vacation and the holiday time is ruined because they sit in line for five hours,” she told The Daily Beast today. Tuesday.

Fried reported that she was told by “someone quite tall” with “direct information” that the state had a stockpile of “hundreds of hundreds of thousands” of COVID tests that were due to expire at the end of the year. this month. She made a public appeal to you, Ron, to unleash the tests before they become useless. Your only response came from your press secretary, who essentially said the matter was beyond Fried’s purpose.

You appeared once more on Fox News, on December 22nd, this time alongside Dan Bongino. You and your host say nothing about your voters screaming desperately about COVID tests. Bongino instead talked about how easily he was treated with monoclonal antibodies in Florida when he contracted a “particularly nasty” case of COVID.

“Why don’t other governors around the country repeat this strategy that really worked for me?” Bongino asked. “It couldn’t be easier.”

You replied that the error started with “people like Dr. Fauci” who “really shy away from talking about any kind of COVID-19 treatment and they are constantly talking about vaccinations.”

That’s no surprise, since you’ve worn T-shirts with “Don’t Fauci My Florida” printed on them.

But then you’ve outdone yourself, Ron. You actually criticized other languages ​​for not anticipating the impending surge of COVID.

“I think we knew we were going to see these waves,” you say. “And so they shouldn’t run out of monoclonal antibody treatments. This is something everyone knows will be needed. We will continue to fight for them in Florida. “

You add, “But sadly we really had to do it. And there are some places around the country where, uh, people who need these treatments can barely get them, and that’s wrong. “

Maybe you’ve been too busy ignoring the current increase in Florida that you haven’t noticed December 21 reported in nature that “preliminary experiments show that most antibody treatments for this disease are powerless against Omicron.”

Maybe a surgeon general who truly respects science will warn you of such an important development.

If nothing else, Ron, you should now not only express yourself, but also show up and warn your constituents. Tell them that two of the three monoclonal antibody treatments you’ve championed don’t seem to work for the new variant. And the third is in such short supply that it is being reserved for dire cases.

Then maybe you can do something with any reserve tests before they expire. You can also advise people to wear masks. You can even set a good example by getting a booster.