You make it sound like DeSantis sent out invitations to people this year again to come down for Spring Break, and when they go back sick, its his fault. People come to Florida for Spring break by choice - because we have some of the best beaches in the country. They - of their own volition - buy plane tickets and book hotels. They did last year too, remember? No one held a gun to their head. And the more you lock them down back home the more they have to get out and go vacation. They'll do it next year. You can cry all you want, but it's not going to change anything.
Seeing that DeSantis promoted both spring break and the bikers week as events that people should visit Florida for.... while trashing other states for "lock-downs" -- yeah he is very much responsible for spreading COVID variants across the country.
Oh, come on. Florida has been the Spring Break capital of the US forever. Bike week in Daytona has been here forever. Florida relies on tourism for its financial health. The governor is looking out for his state. You're just going to have to live with it. Write your angry posts, post your angry articles. Life will go on.
Florida has much higher levels of COVID than spring break vacation spots in Mexico. Florida has much higher levels of COVID variants than Mexico. The U.S. has issued the following warning about spring break travel to Mexico. We should do the same thing for Florida. US warns citizens against traveling to Mexico this month Reconsider spring break travel, urges US Embassy https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/co...izens-against-traveling-to-mexico-this-month/
Yeah, no one cares. They'll come to Florida like they do every year. In fact, last year they shrieked warnings about Florida because of COVID. Did nothing. Shout and carry on and scream and shriek if you want.
"DeSantis for the win" -- Who would of thought? The ONLY state without a COVID vaccination plan endures pure chaos in vaccinations. What a fine example of leadership. There’s no excuse for vaccine madness that occurred in Miami — except that DeSantis won’t give us a plan https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article249776328.html The chaotic scene that unfolded over the weekend at the federal vaccine site in Florida City should be proof enough even for Gov. Ron DeSantis: Florida needs a plan for an orderly rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. We cannot go on like this — nor should we. On, Saturday, word had spread on social media and through word of mouth that anyone over 18 with a state ID could get a vaccine in Florida City because the recently opened location, run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, hadn’t been using up its allotment of 500 shots a day. Lines formed quickly, and people waited — in the pelting rain and in the beating sun — for as long as six hours for the chance to get the shots, as the Miami Herald reported. By Sunday, workers at the site added to the confusion — however well-meaning they may have been — when they vacillated between administering the shots anyone in line or following the state’s restrictions, meaning vaccinating only those over 65 or in certain narrow categories. Some people got shots even though they didn’t qualify, while others in similar situations were sent packing. In a comparison that should mortify the DeSantis administration, one person likened the free-for-all to a game of “real-life monopoly.” Who gets the shot? Roll the dice and see if you land on Vaccine Place. By the time Sunday drew to a close, only 321 vaccines had been administered, far short of the 500-a-day the site can give out. Even though those unused shots were not “wasted” — unopened vaccines generally can be rolled over to the next day — the entire shameful episode is a symptom of a larger problem: No one except the governor knows who will officially qualify to get the vaccine next. His refusal to outline a clear strategy that leaves no one behind is what led to the kind of vaccine madness we saw on Saturday and Sunday. Clearly, it’s imperative that community groups and other civic organizations relentlessly spread the word that vaccines are available for eligible residents wherever FEMA sets up shop. Many such residents still need to be vaccinated. No opportunity — or dose of vaccine — should go to waste. Still, if Florida City wasn’t enough proof that Florida’s vaccine distribution isn’t working, Miami Dade College’s North Campus offered another example. Vaccine workers there were accepting doctors’ letters for people with specific medical conditions that put them at risk for COVID complications. The Florida City site, though, turned away people with notes on Sunday, only accepting a state form signed by a doctor. Such mixed messaging doesn’t help things. In Jacksonville, too, there were signs that the state’s lack of a plan was catching up to it. The FEMA vaccine site there was empty at times on Sunday, and the numbers of those vaccinated there in the last few days had dropped. The DeSantis administration repeatedly has said it does not want to set a priority list for vaccines because it might have to change the plan, insisting that its vaccine distribution decisions are “data driven.” If that’s true, we need to see whatever data supports the situations we saw across the state over the weekend. Do the numbers tell DeSantis that sites without enough qualified people should be left idle, with vaccines at the ready but no one to receive them? A fix for the immediate issue doesn’t seem very hard. We could start by setting up two lines at each site, one for those qualified under state rules and one for stand-bys. If no one qualified is in line, we could let others get the shots. The goal, let’s not forget, is to get everyone vaccinated so we can put this terrible year behind us. The governor took a step in the right direction on Monday, announcing he’ll lower the eligibility age to 60 and older starting March 15. That will help. But the larger issue still remains. This administration, which has dodged and slow-walked public-records requests that would help the public determine risk during the pandemic, insists on treating the vaccine program as political capital rather than life-saving medicine. It’s clear the governor prefers to continue his cross-state personal appearances to announce new rounds of vaccines to select communities as he plans for his reelection campaign next year and a potential bid for the White House in 2024. Florida doesn’t deserve this, though. For all of those still waiting in line, we need more than hope, governor. We need a plan.
Florida COVID vaccine clinic organizers discussed how it would benefit Gov. Ron DeSantis https://www.heraldtribune.com/story...ccine-clinic-florida-ron-desantis/4639633001/ Text messages between Manatee County Commission Chair Vanessa Baugh and Lakewood Ranch developer Rex Jensen show them discussing the political benefits for Gov. Ron DeSantis of holding a COVID-19 vaccine clinic that the pair organized in the upscale community. In the text exchange, Jensen appears to be recounting a call with DeSantis. He mentions that “chief of staff Adrian was also involved.” The governor’s deputy chief of staff at the time was Adrian Lukis, who was announced Monday as his new chief of staff. Jensen goes on to say that DeSantis “said he might show up” at the vaccine clinic, which Jensen says would the governor "get exposure here.” “Excellent point,” Baugh responds. “After all, 22 is right around the corner.” Baugh appears to be referring to the governor’s 2022 re-election campaign. “Yup,” Jensen responds, before noting that the Lakewood Ranch venue where the clinic was held, the Premiere Sports Campus, “could have a nice setup for him.” “Absolutely,” Baugh responds, adding: “This can be huge for him.” Baugh has said that Jensen was contacted by DeSantis and asked to do a vaccination clinic in Lakewood Ranch, and Jensen contacted Baugh to help organize the effort. The texts indicate that political considerations were on the minds of those planning a vaccination event that has since become highly controversial, with critics complaining that the clinic held Feb. 17-19 limited vaccines to individuals in two wealthy, heavily white and Republican ZIP codes. It's not clear from the text exchange documents what the date is, but other documents indicate it was on Feb. 9. Baugh also has been sharply criticized, and is under investigation by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, for creating a vaccine VIP list that included five names of people to get the shot, including herself and Jensen. The Lakewood Ranch clinic sparked concerns of vaccine favoritism and political motivations influencing decisions on who got access to the life-saving shots. Jensen serves as president and CEO of Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, which has donated to DeSantis, adding to questions about whether DeSantis is giving communities tied to his donors special access to the vaccine. DeSantis donor Pat Neal also was tapped to host a vaccine clinic, which ended up offering special vaccine access to three communities where Neal is building homes, including one Sarasota County development with homes valued at more than $1 million. Sarasota County community with million-dollar homes got special vaccine access The texts between Baugh and Jensen touch on the political payback for DeSantis when communities agree to host these vaccine events and offer some of the strongest evidence that politics may have factored into the discussions around these vaccine pop-up clinics. DeSantis has said that clinics such as the one in Lakewood Ranch are an attempt to reach more senior citizens by going to communities with high concentrations of older residents. But they also offer him the opportunity to hold a news conference, garner media attention and get credit for personally bringing the vaccine to influential groups of voters. The text messages between Baugh and Jensen were obtained by Sarasota paralegal Michael Barfield through a public records request. “Every time I hear a politician talk about distribution of COVID vaccine it’s all cast in terms of how it’s not political, that politics plays no role in the distribution," Barfield said. "But here we had proof that they were talking about how it’s going to look good and benefit the governor. So what we’ve suspected is actually in black and white and they can no longer say that politics are not involved in the distribution of the vaccine, and that’s really disappointing. I know we’re in this hyper-partisan era, but it’s really disappointing." Barfield filed a complaint with the Manatee Sheriff’s Office recently alleging Baugh may have violated Florida laws prohibiting the "misuse of public position." Her behavior also may constitute "official misconduct" and "misuse of confidential information" under Florida law, Barfield wrote in the complaint. Baugh said it was her decision to limit the vaccine to two ZIP codes. She later apologized for making the vaccine priority list. She narrowly survived an effort to remove her as commission chair as punishment. DeSantis has traveled the state holding news conferences at many vaccine clinics, some of which have opened near existing vaccination sites. Manatee County has a vaccination site at Tom Bennett Park, about 10 miles from Premiere. The doses at Tom Bennett Park are distributed based on the county's vaccine lottery system, which was created to ensure fair access. On Feb. 17, the same day that DeSantis held a news conference at the Lakewood Ranch vaccination site, Manatee County announced that it was canceling vaccine appointments for 5,100 seniors scheduled to get inoculated at Tom Bennett Park on Feb. 18 and 19 because a storm had delayed vaccine delivery. That meant that Tom Bennett Park had plenty of capacity to distribute the vaccine during the time that the 3,000-dose Lakewood Ranch clinic was held. "If it truly were not political in my view the governor would have said lets take these 3,000 doses over to Bennett Park and don’t cancel for those people," Barfield said. Please follow Herald-Tribune Political Editor Zac Anderson on Twitter at @zacjanderson. He can be reached at zac.anderson@heraldtribune.com
I gotta say, if those are the extent of the text messages in the screenshot you posted from someone named "rex" saying that it might help the "gov" get exposure, then you really, really have a flimsy case. This quote was particularly laughable: “Every time I hear a politician talk about distribution of COVID vaccine it’s all cast in terms of how it’s not political, that politics plays no role in the distribution," Barfield said. Right right....politicians do stuff that isn't political. Said no one ever. Well, besides "Barfield".
It appears that Manatee County Commission Chair Vanessa Baugh is about to be criminally indicted due to these messages. So much for your "flimsy case".