A top-notch applause line here, in keeping with his “Don’t Fauci My Florida” campaign merchandising. DeSantis grasps that Fauci has ascended to the status of premier villain of the pandemic for righties and is eager to leverage that. (Interestingly, Fauci seems to have grasped it too.) Positioning himself as the anti-Fauci is an economical way to fend off attacks from 2024 rivals like Kristi Noem who want the label of “most anti-lockdown candidate” for themselves.
Watch him addressing ALEC yesterday. The widely derided new CDC guidance on masking was an irresistible peg for him to show off his anti-Fauci credentials.
I’m with him on almost all of that. No to lockdowns? I agree, there’s no way to justify lockdowns morally at this point. And no reason to order them scientifically unless we get a new vaccine-busting variant that changes the game.
No to school closures? Right again. That should have been the rule since last summer at the latest, after it had become clear that kids weren’t suffering much from COVID but were suffering a lot from remote learning. Keeping Florida’s public schools open all year is DeSantis’s greatest accomplishment as governor.
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