San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Lockdown ordered over case cluster
The prime minister of Samoa placed the small Pacific nation into a 48-hour lockdown Saturday after 15 passengers on a flight from Australia tested positive for the coronavirus. The infected passengers were among 73 who arrived from Brisbane.
Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa said the government may cancel further flights from Australia. All the passengers were reportedly fully vaccinated and had tested negative for the coronavirus before departure.
The governor of neighboring American Samoa, Lemanu Palepoi Sialega “Peleti” Mauga, issued a statement offering words of solidarity to Samoa and support for its prime minister. He also announced the cancellation of flights between the territory and Samoa for one week.
There is no lockdown in American Samoa, and flights
be unpopular with the MAGA base, the anti-vax community. And so he’s going to try to hug that group of wackos as close as he can for as long as he can.”
DeSantis’ comments could also be seen as a direct response to former President Donald Trump, who said this month that politicians who don’t reveal their booster status are “gutless.”
The governor’s comment comes amid reports of a growing rift between DeSantis and Trump over their shared 2024 presidential ambitions, with COVID vaccines and differences over the initial March 2020 response to the pandemic among the biggest issues.
Trump has repeatedly praised vaccines recently while DeSantis has increasingly surrounded himself with vaccine skeptics, such as state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. DeSantis also recently said that one of his biggest regrets was not opposing Trump’s calls for lockdowns in 2020.