Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has long touted his state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, said that the recent increase in COVID-19 cases should be expected.
“It’s a seasonal virus and this is the seasonal pattern it follows in the Sun Belt states,” the Republican Florida governor told reporters at a press conference on Monday, adding that he expects cases to decline starting in August.
DeSantis also said that some public health experts have spread “misinformation” and have offered “bad advice” about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines. Those unnamed experts, he said, have undermined their own vaccine messaging by denigrating individuals who haven’t been getting inoculated.
“I do not agree with some of these people, some of these ‘experts’ who lambast people and criticize them or say they’re stupid or something,” DeSantis, who received the Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine, told reporters. “That’s not the way to reach folks, OK?”
DeSantis’ comment comes as White House COVID-19 official Jeff Zients said on July 16 that four states, including Florida, accounted for more than 40 percent of all cases in the past week. The cases, he added, primarily involved the so-called “Delta” variant and is occurring among people who are not vaccinated. – READ MORE
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