More Flori-DUH: DeSantis Threatens to fine Special Olympics $27.5M If Vaccine Requirements Kept

Apparently, the rights of some unnamed (and uncounted) "antivax Special Olympians" are more important than keeping everyone safe, according to DeSantis. 

SCOOP: The State of Florida threatened the Special Olympics with $27.5 MILLION in fines because the organization had a vaccine requirement at its games in Orlando this weekend.

Late yesterday, the Special Olympics pulled the requirement. 1/3

— Jay O'Brien (@jayobtv) June 3, 2022

DeSantis is a COVID denier in all but name and has persistently tried to downplay death rates. Even his state surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, has no experience managing epidemics or in public health, and is a signer of GBD, calling COVID preparations "COVID mania".  

Combined with his "don't say gay" bill, a kick in the Tampa Bay Ray's shins on their quest for a new stadium just because Ray's expressed support for a bit more gun safety, and other political theater to appeal to conservatives, it's pretty clear he, like Abbott in Texas, is just setting himself up as a Trump successor in two years by abusing the power of his office. 

Flori-DUH Governor DeSantis Proves Again He's More About Politics Than Floridians

According to Ron Filipkowski, quoting OutKick, it seems that DeSantis will veto $35 million for Tampa Bay Rays training facility, because the team spoke out against gun violence in the wake of the two recent mass shootings. 

Desantis will veto the bill to fund the Tampa Rays new Spring Training facility because of their recent statements about gun violence following the Buffalo and Uvalde mass shootings. pic.twitter.com/TcpvMJHN7Y

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) June 2, 2022

You may ask, why do Tampa Bay Rays need a spring training facility? 

Seems the Rays are only LEASING their current spring training facility in Port Charlotte, Florida and their lease runs out in 2028. The idea is to build a complex of multiple practice fields, a stadium, clubhouse, training facilities, catering and cafeteria for both players and visitors, player housing, and parking, so while the primary tenant is away or off-season, the fields can be used by other local teams, both amateur and professional. 

The idea is to retain the Rays in Florida because the Rays need a better home stadium. While they have played at Tropicana Stadium at St. Petersburg, FL, they want a better stadium than the 32-year-old stadium which only has a capacity of 25K fans, and their lease runs out in 2027.  And the construction of both a spring training facility AND a new stadium would keep the Rays in Pasco County, near Tampa. 

DeSantis vetoing this would almost guarantee Rays leaving unless a different deal can be struck between now and then. 

Talk about cutting off one's nose to spite one's face, but that's DeSantis for you. He's rather use every opportunity to help his political views than to do the right things for all Floridians.     

Florida COVIDiocy: FL Surgeon General Ladapo Wants to Unwind COVID Testing while Speaking at Podium with Sign "Early Treatment Saves Lives"

I originally thought that DeSantis' Republican anti-health lunacy is limited to himself. Seems he has found a partner in his Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo. 

Dr. Ladapo, while standing in at a lectern with a sign "Early Treatment Saves Lives", talked about how he will "unwind the testing psychology" of the Federal government. 

❓Just how exactly will you do early treatment without early testing? ❓

Keep in mind, Florida is begging / demanding the Federal government for more monoclonal antibodies for treatment because Florida has seen DOUBLE the people hospitalized for COVID (5700 vs 2406), from the previous week, as well as more than double the number of new COVID cases (from 128K to 298K). 

What's really disturbing, however, is Ladapo's emphasis that the guidance "doesn’t restrict access to testing, but reduces the use of low-value testing and prioritizes high-value testing."

❓So who determines what's high-value and what's low-value? ❓

Then DeSantis chimed in about how younger folks should not come in and hog up all the monoclonal antibodies treatment and save them for the seniors. He said literally: 

“It’s basically cold-like symptoms for a lot of those folks. That is not something you need to be coming in and getting monoclonals for. So, let’s look at our elderly population. Let’s look at folks that are immunocompromised or maybe things like diabetes that have shown to be a real serious risk factor,”

Wait, so the young folks who probably don't need them, are hogging all the monoclonal antibodies treatments? ❓

❓Is that why DeSantis are demanding more doses from the Feds? Because he wasted them due to him ignoring Federal testing policies, vaccine mandates, and mask mandates?❓ 

But consider this: by limiting the number of tests, DeSantis can claim he has fewer positive cases. 

Wouldn't stop the hospitalization from increasing, of course. 

But "high quality testing" is a playbook out of the Great Barrington Declaration. And indeed, Ladapo is a signatory of the GBD. Keep in mind that Ladapo is a cardiovascular physician. He has no training or expertise in epidemiology, virology, or even infectious diseases. He was even at one time among the voices of HQL and IVM pimps. 

What's REALLY out of touch? Florida's Department of Health tweeted on Christmas Day that "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!"

Please keep in mind that singing requires you to breathe WITHOUT any mask on. And if you are carrying the virus (with or without symptoms) you will be spreading it far and wide, potentially infecting lots of people. 

It's been documented that even two doors that briefly opened together are enough to pass COVID, according to a New Zealand quarantine facility contact tracing. The two groups were separated across a hallway at a quarantine hotel. The two groups never came into contact with one another, except for a brief period where one side opened their door, then the other side also did. There were only a few seconds of overlap, but it was enough. 

It was clear that Florida Department of Health has turned into the Department of ANTI-Health, with "leadership" from not just one, but two death-dealers. 

Not only do they openly fight Federal attempts to fight the disease, but they also want Federal help to save the victims of their own efforts.  

And it's only going to get worse. 

More COVIDiocy: How had we sunk this far?

Today is 9/11, the day when the largest terrorist attack on US soil took 3000+ lives in moments. 

Today also marks a time that it has been more than 20 months since COVID first appeared in the US, and it has claimed 659K lives since then in the US alone (check on Google for latest CDC data). 

In fact, on September 10th alone, CDC recorded 2418 deaths, in the US. And the trend is still upwards. We may see deaths surpassing 3000 daily in a few days. 

US COVID Daily Deaths for 9/10/21 = 2418... and rising

Yet it seems some people are so desperate to go back to normal, they are ignoring the deaths and prefer to tout "right to choose". 

Texas Governor Abbot infamously tweeted that he will defend the Texans' "right to choose" when the Biden administration announced some sweeping vaccine mandates in a few months. How he can tweet that, having signed the anti-abortion law which limits Texas women's "right to choose" not too long ago, signifies the broken Republican moral system, and clearly, his own broken hypocrisy detector. But let's not get into that at the moment. 

It seems a lot of Federal Worker Unions are not going to be onboard the vaccine mandate train, so to speak. Many have carefully worded their response as "workers should have a choice in their own working conditions" or similar verbiage. 

Translation: "You can't tell me what to do!" (Even though it's the right thing to do, like masking up, or getting vaccinated.)

Who says that? Entitled people, i.e. the "Karens" of the world. 

One Florida parent was arrested when he got physical with a student who started filming him without a mask on inside the school. The guy was already warned several times for not wearing a mask despite school policy. So he was basically provoking a reaction. 

In California, a man got into fisticuffs with a teacher who was trying to protect the principal as the man yelled profanities over the school's mask policy. He was arrested for assault and battery. 

In Austin, Texas, several parents started yelling at the teachers who chose to stay masked during a meet-the-teachers meeting. One parent even yanked the mask off a teacher's face. The two cases had shaken the community. (FWIW, Governor Abbot of Texas, whom we mentioned earlier, also signed an order PROHIBITING mask mandates)

Please keep in mind that Florida, Texas, and California are the most populous states in the US, and therefore, COVID hotbeds, with the most cases... and deaths. 

Given that we can't vaccinate the kids yet, at least those under 12 years of age, the only way to protect them was to mask them, and the teachers, and all the school employees, and EVERYONE around them (including the parents, relatives, and so on).  It'd be better they all get vaccinated too, but it takes weeks for the vaccination to reach full potency (the antibodies get made).  Masking is immediate. 

So people opposing the masks are basically saying "my right to NOT cover my face is more important than protecting the kids". 

COVID is not merciful. Given half of US population is fully vaccinated, the new COVID cases are almost exclusively of the unvaccinated, and sadly, that includes children. Infants. Babies. EVEN THE UNBORN. Yes, COVID also causes fetal deaths. And we've earlier covered a case where a 4-year old went from fever to death in mere HOURS. Children are now over 20% of new COVID cases in several different states. 

In 2020, we thought we had survived COVID because we didn't get the huge wave of casualties like China when the entire medical system was overwhelmed in Wuhan. 

It is now 2021, and ICUs across the country are filling up with COVID patients with a good number of them children. Several states have started or are preparing for "rationing care" because they only have so much resources available to fight COVID. First state to do so was Idaho. Care to guess which party is Idaho's governor? You guess it: Republican. It is just so ironic to see how Sarah Palin (Republican) tried to push the narrative of a "death panel" in the 2009 political debate, and it is now forced into practice... 

The Republican party has governors in two out of three most populous (and thus, most COVID) states. DeSantis in Florida, and Abbott in Texas. BOTH have signed mask anti-mandate orders for their state in the name of "freedom for the parents". 

It is no coincidence that many reports of overwhelmed hospitals have surfaced from both Texas and Florida. Texas had run out of ICU space near Houston, and Florida is believed to have less than 10% space left in ICU as of mid-August.

Is freedom really worth THAT much death, esp. of children? 

Or perhaps..

"The needs of the many, outweighs the needs of the few"?