South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
State virus cases top 250,000
COVID-19 deaths exceed 90 for third straight day
President Donald Trump, right, is joined on the podium by Gov. Ron DeSantis during a rally in 2019.
COVID-19 cases pushed past a quarter-million Saturday, as Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a defense of the state’s decision to return schools to in-person classes next month.
“We know there are huge, huge costs for not providing the availability for in-person schooling for our students,” he said at a news conference Saturday in Bradenton, on a day that saw 10,360 more cases and 98 additional deaths, the third straight day with at least 90 fatalitiesfrom the disease. “The risk of corona, fortunately for students, is incredibly low.”
“People say, well, kids may be the vectors in the community because that’s what happens in an
Betty Anesh, 89, said she’s been cooped up in her Boynton Beach home for months, and she isn’t happy to see that her home state is now a global hotspot for coronavirus infections. DeSantis should be on the phone with scientists — not the White House, she said.
“He is not listening to the people in Florida who are so frightened,” said Anesh, a registered Democrat. “He does what Trump tells him to do. If you put both of their heads together, you wouldn’t get one brain.”
first-term governor, DeSantis owes his rise to the governor’s mansion to Trump’s endorsement. Now, his political fate hinges on how he handles the coronavirus emergency.
State Sen. Joe Gruters, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, has a far different view of DeSantis’ intelligence and leadership during the pandemic than the opinion held by the governor’s detractors.
“He has done an exceptional job,” Gruters said. “Florida lucked out having the smartest governor in the country. I am sure glad I am in Florida and not New York. We are much better off in every respect.”
New York was hit early and hard by the virus. Republicans highlight Florida’s lower death rate in nursing homes as an example of how they say DeSantis effectively handled the outbreak.
New York has recorded more than 6,400 deaths in long-term care facilities, while Florida’s death toll is just over 2,000. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has come under fire for a state directive that required nursing homes to accept COVID-19 positive patients with the goal of freeing up space in hospitals.
But cases are now surging in Florida, and the epidemic has slowed in New York. Florida announced a record 120 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, the highest single-day total since the outbreak started. Floridians traveling to New York now must quarantine for 14 days, a reversal from earlier this year.
That’s thrust DeSantis into a political firestorm with foes arguing he moved too quickly to restart the state’s economy.
“It is evident that the governor is in lock step with President Trump,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch said. “The White House’s approach to the virus is to just live with it. … He needs to do what is necessary for our health — not what is necessary for his politics.”
DeSantis has followed the Trump playbook through the epidemic, downplaying the rise in new cases and bragging at times about how the state was faring.
Richard Corcoran, Florida’s commissioner of education, didn’t respond to an interview request made through a spokeswoman to explain the decision-making process on restarting in-person learning. DeSantis defended the state’s decision to reopen classrooms during a news conference Thursday with U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia, making his own headlines for comparing classrooms to Home Depot.
“If you can do Home Depot, if you can do Walmart, if you can do these things, we absolutely can do the schools,” DeSantis said Thursday. “I want our kids to be able to minimize this educational gap that I think has developed.”
DeSantis has taken direction from Trump at other times during the pandemic.
He hesitantly issued a stay-athome order on April 1 after weeks of resisting such a move. He acted only when Trump-nominated surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams
gave the green light by saying the White House’s recommendations amounted to a national stayat-home order.
DeSantis purchased 1 million doses of the decades-old antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, an unproven COVID-19 treatment favored by Trump. In April, DeSantis invited a doctor and patient to provide testimonials about the drug during a media briefing in the Florida Cabinet room.
He also has taken a combative tone with reporters. He trumpeted that initial worst-case projections never came to fruition.
“We have succeeded, and I think that people just don’t want to recognize it because it challenges their narrative,” DeSantis said in May when Florida’s infections had plateaued. “It challenges their assumption.”
DeSantis pushed for sports leagues and the Republican National Convention to come to Florida on the grounds that Sunshine State had escaped the worst of the coronavirus epidemic. The NBA and Major League Soccer are planning to complete their seasons in Orlando. Disney World — the beating heart of Florida’s tourism sector — will reopen on Saturday, while California’s Disneyland will remain closed.
When cases started to rise in recent weeks, DeSantis attributed the increase to increased testing, particularly among younger people who were frequenting reopened bars. That echoed a talking point promoted by Vice President Mike Pence on a private call with governors that was obtained by The New York Times.
DeSantis cut off alcohol sales at bars to try to slow the spread, but he hasn’t embraced a statewide mask mandate or significantly rolled back the reopening.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott moved more assertively on masks than DeSantis as cases started to spike.
Texas was one of the first states to reopen. When cases started rising there, Abbott issued a statewide mask mandate.
DeSantis said he preferred to give local leaders the flexibility to decide whether they wanted to require masks in their communities. South Florida counties opted to mandate masks.
Trump’s support helped to propel DeSantis past establishment favorite Adam Putnam in the Republican primary. One of DeSantis’ campaign ads showed him building a wall and reading Trump’s “Art of the Deal” to his children.
DeSantis, a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, is seen as having presidential ambitions. He launched his political career as a congressman representing the Daytona Beach area.
Once in Tallahassee, DeSantis set to make his own mark, securing funding for the Everglades and the environment, lifting a ban on smoking medical marijuana and supporting pay raises for teachers. Those initiatives garnered praise from some Democrats, who welcomed the new governor as a positive change from his predecessor now-U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.
But DeSantis didn’t stop serving up red meat to his Trump base, pushing a ban on so-called sanctuary cities that offer protections to undocumented residents. At a campaign rally in Sunrise in November, DeSantis appeared next to Trump, who praised the governor’s “all muscle” physique.
That bond has helped Florida, Gruters said, by giving DeSantis a direct line to the White House. That’s helped secure badly needed federal stockpiles of protective equipment, he said.