Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been a leading critic of the Biden administration and Democratic states’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
During his first term as Governor and his re-election campaign, the Governor made Florida’s status as a “free” state relative to Democratic states a focal point of his campaign.
On Tuesday, DeSantis unveiled an initiative to permanently protect Florida from overly intrusive Covid-19 restrictions.
The plan included a permanent ban on vaccine passports, mask mandates, and any discrimination based on vaccination status.
Today, I announced an initiative to make protections against coercive biomedical policies permanent including prohibiting:
– COVID vax passports
– COVID vax & mask requirements to attend any school
– Any COVID mask requirements
– All discrimination based on vax or booster status— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 17, 2023
“They can’t discriminate against you when it comes to hiring or firing when it comes to private or government employment,” DeSantis said. “No requirements of masking in lieu of vax.”
DeSantis said that he wants to allow people to follow the evidence and make choices that are best for their health rather than forcing catch-all solutions on every Florida resident.
Subscribe to Florida Jolt Newsletter!
“We want to protect people’s ability to follow the evidence,” DeSantis said. “To follow evidence over the narrative.”
He also said that he wants to allow medical practitioners to decide what is best for their patients, in contrast to states like California that have threatened to pull their licenses.
WATCH: DeSantis said medical practitioners, physicians will be given "the freedom to be able to speak the truth" in new legislation
"[California] can even take away your license […] We want to protect people's ability to be able to follow the evidence." pic.twitter.com/wIFkqSg7gi
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) January 17, 2023
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo joined DeSantis at the conference.
Ladapo has also been a leader in his field in the United States in producing research that has called in to question the safety and efficacy of the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine.
Ladapo said that he was happy to see people rallying around DeSantis’ initiative to end restrictive covid policies in the state.
“I’m happy that we have a lot of consensus around this legislation to really codify more common sense around Florida,” Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said at the press conference.
“It’s important to have a voice to the madness and the lunacy that is unfortunately coming out of many parts of this country.”
WATCH: @FLSurgeonGen Joseph Ladapo: "It's all of these crazy ideas [vaccine, mask mandates, gas stove ban] and Governor DeSantis gets to say, 'No, that doesn't make sense,' […] It's like they're trying to make it easy." pic.twitter.com/TG6Bzijal4
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) January 17, 2023
Ladapo discussed the rapidly evolving conversation around Covid-19 as new evidence continued to arise about how the virus could be spread and the effectiveness of measures such as masks and vaccines.
He said that the rapidly changing nature of the conversation is another reason why people’s free speech and freedom of choice should be valued.
“So many things continue to evolve, and this is why it is not sensible, this is just one reason why it’s not sensible to try and restrict speech from physicians,” Ladapo said. “They should be allowed to say what they think and they shouldn’t be forced or essentially scared into feeling that they can’t express themselves. That’s just profoundly unwise.”
Other stories you may want to read:
‘Amateur Hour’ Top MSNBC Host Chastises Biden Over Documents Scandal
‘Come and Take It’: DeSantis Rips Potential Federal Ban on Gas Stoves
