DeSantis: Florida needs more antiviral medication remdesivir
Governor discusses state’s mental health issues during pandemic
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that Vice President Mike Pence understands Florida needs more of the antiviral medication remdesivir to treat coronavirus patients and that more vials are on their way to the state.
“They are working on that,” he said, adding that he had spoken to Pence about the issue on Wednesday night. “We want to get it there [to the hospitals] as soon as possible.”
His comments came after a discussion on the coronavirus and the mental health of Floridians, during which he emphasized the negative effects of social isolation.
DeSantis said the effects of the pandemic reach far beyond those who’ve been infected.
“You’re worried about a paycheck, you’re worried about kids, you’re worried about family members,” DeSantis said. “There’s a lot of anxiety here.”
The governor, along with First Lady Casey DeSantis and Department of Children and Families Secretary Chad Poppell, took part in the event at the Tampa Bay Crisis Center.
Among the speakers on the mental health issue was Danny Burgess, executive director of the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs, who called veterans mental health “absolutely a state of emergency” during the “unprecedented crisis with this pandemic.”
Another participant was the Tampa Bay Crisis Center’s president and CEO, Clara Reynolds, who said calls from Hillsborough County residents to 211, the crisis and emergency hotline, have skyrocketed.
Reynolds called the pandemic
“a behavioral health tsunami.”
After the discussion wrapped up, the governor answered reporters’ questions about the pandemic.
Asked about reports of longterm health effects even in asymptomatic people, particularly among children, DeSantis asked the reporter, “Has there been a peer-reviewed study? Or is it just something that people are surmising?”
The reporter said he could not cite a study but had been seeing reports from health experts.
The Sun-Sentinel reported this week that nearly a third of children tested in Florida have been infected, and the newspaper interviewed a South Florida health official who is concerned the disease “could cause lifelong damage even for children with mild illness.”
“You can’t rule anything out, but nothing’s been substantiated in that regard,” DeSantis said. “It’s problematic to say in 20 years there will be all these problems, when we just don’t know that.”