Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is calling out President Joe Biden for suggesting the U.S. could face another round of lockdowns in the future.
“To even contemplate doing any type of lockdown, honestly, it’s insane,” DeSantis said during a press conference Friday. “That’s not gonna happen in the state of Florida.”
“We’re gonna continue doing what works, but under no circumstances would we entertain anything of the sort,” he added, referring to renewed lockdown measures.
On Monday, the Associated Press published an analysis showing that, despite the very different responses from DeSantis in Florida and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in California, where Americans have been heavily restricted, the toll the virus has taken has been almost the same in each state.
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The Republican governor’s comments came the day after Biden delivered his first national address marking the one-year anniversary of the start of lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During his speech, Biden threatened Americans with more draconian restrictions.
“If we don’t stay vigilant and the conditions change, then we may have to reinstate restrictions to get back on track,” he said. “Please, we don’t want to do that again. We’ve made so much progress. This is not the time to let up, just as we were emerging from the dark winter into a hopeful spring and summer is not the time to not stick with the rules.”
Biden also said Thursday there is a “good chance” Americans will be able to gather — only outdoors and in “small groups” — by Independence Day.
“A July 4th with your loves ones is the goal,” he said.
Furthermore, on Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Biden’s chief medical adviser, hinted that nationwide lockdowns might return in there is another spike in COVID-19 cases.
Even with the vaccine and the steep decline in COVID-19 infections, Fauci said on “Fox News Sunday” that this is “absolutely no time to declare victory.”
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“We know from previous surges that we’ve had over the year that, when you see that leveling off at a high level, there’s always the risk of a surge back up. In fact, unfortunately, that’s exactly what is happening in Europe right now. They had the same kind of decline. They always seem to be a few weeks ahead of us in the dynamics of the outbreak. Then they plateaued because they pulled back a bit. They thought that they were home free and they weren’t. And now they’re seeing an increase up.”
He said it’s “ill-advised” to lift unending restrictions and called it “risky and potentially dangerous” to allow mask mandates to expire.
In a separate interview on CNN, Fauci used Italy — which is now entering its second major lockdown — as a cautionary tale for why the U.S. shouldn’t move to reopen too quickly.
“[Italy] had a diminution of cases,” he told host Jake Tapper. “They plateaued and they pulled back on public health measures. They’ve opened restaurants. They’ve opened some of the bars. The younger people particularly stopped wearing masks. All of a sudden you have a surge that went right back up.”
“That’s where we are right now,” Fauci added. “We can avoid that if we continue to vaccinate people, get more and more protection without all of a sudden pulling back on public health measures.”
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