Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum issued a full-throated criticism of DeSantis Monday saying the “Governor of Florida has decided which lives matter to him.”
“People of color, seniors and those with pre-existing conditions are more likely to die from #Covid. Wear a mask, socially distance, avoid crowds and large indoor gatherings,” Gillum advised his nearly 620,200 followers on Twitter.
Gillum, who has returned to the public eye recently after a scandal-driven sabbatical, linked to a critique of Florida’s move toward normalcy from Dr. Anthony Fauci, among the more cautious voices from President Donald Trump‘s Coronavirus Task Force.
Fauci singled out Florida as “concerning” in Monday morning comments to ABC News’s “Good Morning America.”
“Well that is very concerning to me, I mean, we have always said that, myself and Dr. Deborah Birx, who is the coordinator of the task force, that that is something we really need to be careful about, because when you’re dealing with community spread, and you have the kind of congregate setting where people get together, particularly without masks, you’re really asking for trouble. Now’s the time actually to double down a bit, and I don’t mean close.”
“When I say that, people get concerned that we’re talking about shutting down,” he said. “We’re not talking about shutting anything down, we’re talking about common sense type of public health measures that we’ve been talking about all along.”
DeSantis does not seem inclined to take much more advice from Gillum, Fauci, or anyone else who would fetter Florida’s economy going forward.
In a gloves-off performance for a national Fox News audience Friday night, DeSantis castigated critics of the move forward as “ignorant about Florida.”
“Lockdowns should be off the table,” DeSantis said, noting a now familiar argument that they “exacerbate” other social problems.
“We never closed down over the summer,” DeSantis said. “We actually had, of course, beaches, theme parks, retail operating at 100%. We had sports, summer camps over the summer. We have over 1.1 million students in face-to-face instruction for K-12. We have college students that are on campus. We’ve had big events, college football with fans. NFL football with fans. We had a NASCAR race with 30,000 people.”
“So we’ve been open. The final piece of the puzzle was this capacity limitation on restaurants at 50%. And so that was the announcement … kind of brought that in for a landing.”
This article first appeared at Florida Politics.
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This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2020.