DeSantis questions distancing guidelines

Maskless meeting draws criticism

Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed increasing impatience with not only coronavirus business restrictions but also social distancing at a notably maskless indoor discussion with bar owners and craft beer makers in St. Petersburg on Thursday.

The lack of masks and 6-foot distancing at the meeting, held indoors at the Green Bench Brewing Company, drew fire from St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman.

Desantis, Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Halsey Beshears, and the other participants sat just a few feet from each other at a Vshaped table.

“Here’s an example of what not to do, especially in Pinellas County and St. Petersburg, where our mask mandate & policies have led the way in the fight against COVID,” Kriseman wrote next to a photo of the event. “Indoors, no masks, no distancing. We believe in science here, governor. We also believe in leading by example.”

DeSantis did not say when he would allow drinking at bars, which has been suspended by Beshears since June because of multiple cases of crowding.

“We really want to get to ‘yes,’ so we’re working hard on it,” DeSantis told owners.

DeSantis also said it would ulti

mately be his decision to reopen bars, not Beshears.’ DeSantis has repeatedly described the June decision to close bars as one made by Beshears and not himself.

“He was getting inundated with stuff,” DeSantis said of Beshears’ attempts at regulating bar capacity after the initial reopening in early June. “And there was just no way to be able to play whack-a-mole. ... But I’ve told him, I want every business in Florida operating. And we pretty much have 99%. You guys are kind of the last step.”

The lack of masks and social distancing fit the tone of the discussion Thursday, during which DeSantis and bar owners repeatedly expressed frustration over coronavirus rules and questioned some of the limited capacity restrictions in place since the spring.

“Somehow it slipped [from] ‘slow the spread, protect hospitals’ to ‘we could never have another case again,’” DeSantis said. “So it really turned into something that was not how it was sold originally to the country.”

The governor continued, “I just worry that when we talk about things like social distancing, all this stuff, how long of a period of time is that natural for people to do?”

When a bar owner said people concerned about the virus should just improve their own health and lifestyles, adding they should get more Vitamin D, DeSantis responded that was something to consider.

“There’s a new vitamin D study I haven’t had [the chance] to look through, but it purports to show a decline in ICU hospitalizations in people who have had significant vitamin D,” he said. “So so we’ll have to see.”