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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRon DeSantis Announces Plan to Basically Ensure Florida Schoolchildren Get COVID
Quick: Youre the governor of a state where COVID-19 is literally out of control, reportedly accounting for about 20% of all new infections in the country. As one doctor recently explained, if your state was a country, the U.S. would probably impose a travel ban on people visiting from it. Not only are things really, really bad across the board, but when it comes to children, your state currently holds the record for the most young people admitted to the hospital in the past week. Do you (a) start taking this thing seriously, by imposing public health measures known to stop the spread of the virus (b) think of the children, and follow other states in requiring masks in the fall or (c) at the very least allow individual schools to make their own decisions on the issue of masks, including letting them decide theyre necessary? If youre Florida governor Ron DeSantis, the answer is a resounding none of the above and an added note to screw the kids.
On Monday, DeSantiss office threatened to withhold the pay of superintendents and school board members who ignore the governors executive order banning mask mandates for schools. Just so its clear, that means if a school district looks at the (overwhelming) data and decides that it would like to protect its communityfrom getting sick and potentially dyingDeSantis will block them from getting paid to score political points with conservatives. Usually, school districts get in serious trouble if theyre caught putting kids in harms way, but in this scenario, DeSantis is threatening to punish anyone caught protecting kids (and teachers) from catching a highly contagious disease. Which, in the words of health experts, is fucking insane, even for Florida.
The warning comes as infections in the Sunshine State have increased 51% in the past week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University; Florida reported 134,506 new COVID-19 cases from July 30 to August 5, more than any other seven-day period. Meanwhile, the delta variant has been more harmful to children than the original strain, with 4,615 Florida children hospitalized last week, Rolling Stone noted. Our pediatricians, the nursing, the staff are exhausted, and the children are suffering, and it is absolutely devastating, Aileen Marty, M.D., an infectious disease expert at Florida International University, told CNNs Anderson Cooper 360 on Friday night. Our children are very much affected. Weve never seen numbers like this before.
The viral load in Florida is so high right now, there are really only two places on the planet where its higherone is Louisiana and the other is Botswana, Jonathan Reiner, M.D., a professor at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, told CNN on Sunday. Its so high in Florida that I think if Florida were another country, we would have to consider banning travel from Florida to the United States.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/08/ron-desantis-florida-covid-anti-mask-measures
Texaswitchy
(2,962 posts)Blame everything on President Biden.
Americans cannot get used to a great economy run by decent people.