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Media Smears FL Gov. Ron DeSantis on COVID-19
Today the Orlando Sentinel reprinted an article published by the Tampa Sun Sentinel, a Democratic rag out of South Florida. The clear intent was to attack Gov. DeSantis’ management of COVID-19, and the result looked more like a smear campaign than a recitation of data. In fact, even when they listed information, they frequently qualified their message. I’ve divided their article into three areas: (1) anger over excluding “the experts”; (2) rejection of the MSM “facts”; and (3) dissatisfaction that DeSantis is using data that conflicts with the MSM.
To begin this review, the representatives of the universities and institutes in Florida are accusing DeSantis of playing politics:
‘The governor is a smart, educated guy,’ said Thomas Unnasch, co-director of the Center for Global Health and Infectious Disease Research at the University of South Florida in Tampa. ‘But he is a politically savvy guy. He is encouraging people who are of the opinion that the virus is not as severe and profound as others say it is and putting politics before science.’
I suspect that Dr. Unnasch is disappointed that he is not the expert being consulted. The fact that COVID is highly contagious but many fewer are now dying from it seems irrelevant to him.
Then there is the dismay over DeSantis’ consulting Scott Atlas, the former consultant on COVID to President Trump:
At the end of August, DeSantis invited Atlas on a tour of Florida. The two appeared at a series of news conferences, where DeSantis rattled off favorable statistics on the fight against the disease and Atlas backed the governor’s less-restrictive approach.
But Atlas’ statements have been widely panned by other scientists and drew a rebuke last month from the Stanford Faculty Senate, which adopted a resolution to ‘strongly condemn’ him for promoting a view on COVID-19 that ‘contradicts medical science.’ Atlas responded that he was ‘disappointed’ in the faculty resolution, saying, ‘My views in favor of the careful protection of our nation’s most vulnerable while safely re-opening society are far from contrary to science.’
Of course, the mainstream was furious that Atlas was being consulted since his medical specialty didn’t involve infectious disease. I guess that made him incapable of reviewing and assessing the data available on COVID-19.
An associate dean confirmed that DeSantis consulting Atlas was a political move:
‘Calling people in from out of state to be experts who are of your same mindset, you are controlling the narrative, and it’s politics not science,’ said Dr. Jay Wolfson, senior associate dean of the University of South Florida’s Morsani College of Medicine. ‘Florida is one of the top states in the nation for expertise to draw on. Unfortunately, at the state level, I’m afraid we are not being heard, and evidence-based data is not being used as far as decisions being made.’
When egos are at stake, trampling others’ reputations is one option for action.
* * * * *
When all else fails, using information that can’t be validated helps your arguments:
Although researchers have yet to establish the exact COVID death rate, there’s broad agreement it’s at least several times more lethal than the common seasonal flu. On average, the flu has killed between 10,000 to 60,000 Americans every year since 2010. So far this year, COVID has killed more than 272,000, according to dashboard run by Johns Hopkins University.
The fact that the regular reporting of flu deaths is far from concise doesn’t seem relevant to these authors. And there is also “broad agreement” that deaths on the data from COVID are difficult to define, since people often have co-morbidities; as a result, it’s very hard to discern if people are dying from COVID or with COVID.
The media is also happy to distort tweets that conflict with their agenda:
Piccolo retweeted an observation by Dr. James Todaro, an ophthalmologist who gained attention for promoting Trump’s favored COVID-19 policies, that read, ‘Wearing a mask outdoors is more ludicrous than wearing a seat belt in a car showroom.’
Experts say masks should be worn outside if it’s not possible to maintain a safe distance from people you aren’t normally near. ‘I would say that tweet is dangerous,’ said Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard University’ T.H. Chan School of Public Health. ‘Masks cut risk. I would call that a false tweet.’
Assistant Professor Mina conveniently assumed that Dr. Todaro was talking about people outdoors who are crowded into mobs of protests, and that he must be saying it was okay to go mask-less in that environment. Somehow I don’t think that was Dr. Todaro’s intention.
Finally, Gov. DeSantis called out the local “authorities” at this Nov. 30 news conference:
‘At some point you have to look at the observed experience about what’s happening,’ he said. ‘And I think there’s narratives like ‘lockdowns work.’ ‘And they don’t, if you look at the evidence, business closures, all this stuff, look at what just happened in Europe. France locked down, Switzerland didn’t—same viral curve, literally, no difference. So you focus on protecting vulnerable people. You provide the resources to our medical and hospitals as they need it.’
Those listening must have been miffed at the DeSantis insistence on actual facts.
* * * * *
Several local Florida governments are calling for masks indoors, and even outdoors (if people are unable to “socially distance.” They will continue to apply pressure on Gov. DeSantis to give in to their demands to make a statewide mandate. I don’t think he will.
They’ll just mandate their own restrictions, crippling businesses and burdening citizens.
Watch for it.
In a more recent video, the governor confirms that nursing home residents will be vaccinated first. DeSantis puts priority distribution of the vaccines to nursing home residents first, and then health providers.
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Published in Healthcare
Hang tough, Florida. We need you.
Where were masks and “social distancing” ( I forgot my 10 foot pole.) last year? I guess 60,000 is an acceptable number? Or is it too small a number to ruin a nation’s economy?
Gee whiz, I just don’t know. Nobody knows.
Sadly, there are worse Democratic rags in the area. There is the Tampa Bay Times. I mean, does it get any worse than the creator of PolitiFact “Truth-O-Meter!?!” One of the absolute worst things ever created, in my opinion!
The voice of that small business owner in CA who tearfully begged someone to help them (after she purchased a tent for outside dining for $80,000) keeps ringing in my ears. Still waiting to hear if the the illustrious mayor of Orange County, FL will get approval for fines of $1,000 per day for masks violations.
I’m beginning to think that power to control someone else -no matter how teeny the power or how few the people – must be better than sex. These people can’t get enough. Then, there’s the money.
The very thought of what those people are going through makes me furious. And there is a meal tent right next to this business that is feeding people working on a movie. Only in CA, @eodmom.
Fake news is the enemy of the people.
I saw these disparaging headlines about DeSantis last week. It is the press’s insufferable gloating about defeating Donald Trump. They want to take DeSantis down with him. It is so discouraging. I hope the virus numbers–at least the ones the press is focused on–settle down quickly in Florida over the next couple of weeks. I think they will.
I would invite them to substantiate their apparent baseless claims, presented without evidence, that they know what science is.
Whoa. I need to find out what’s going on in Oviedo.
I’ll bet they are starting the attacks to keep him off the next job up.
The numbers are high just about everywhere; who knows if they’re legitimate anyway? And DeSantis has been conservative and wise in the steps he’s taken. I, too, hope things will look brighter soon, @marcin.
That just shows what a good job he’s done! But I wouldn’t doubt that’s the strategy.
They are indeed high everywhere. I was hoping they’d stay low in Florida because your weather is still nice and warm down there. :-) Sigh.
It really is a shame DeSantis did not follow the noble example of Andrew Cuomo, who so successfully managed Covid in New York. Maybe he would also have won an Emmy.
I’m interested in knowing if other Republican Governors are being targeted by their media, because they’re honoring the freedom of their citizens. Can anyone tell us?
Other Republican governors are not doing the job DeSantis and Noem are fearlessly doing. Baker, kemp, Dewine, Sununu don’t qualify as strong conservatives and don’t threaten the future of radical Dems. No need to threaten them.
I’ll bet a lot that the so-called seasonal flu is being diagnosed and counted as COVID. I don’t trust the testing process at all. Not at all.
A newspaper smear of a Republican politician? Inconceivable!
I think Florida also can’t make up its mind about whether it wants to be blue or red. The media doesn’t help.
I see that Florida will require Covid19 testers to reveal how much “amplification” they are using for PCR tests. That should help bring some honesty to the “case” data. Good leadership.
I’m not familiar with that, @dong. Could you clarify, please
It is amazing just how much media plays a role in this. My wife talked to an aunt that lives down in Boward county who’s a dyed in the wool, former Chicagoan Democrat. Apparently you’d think the Florida Gov. was Satan and they’re all going to die. There are no sources she listens to that say anything different.
(Edit: dyed, not died. I’d blame autocorrect but sadly, that was me)
That is so sad, @daveofbarsham. I only get the Orlando Sentinel for the Sunday paper which entitles me to the puzzles on line. They are despicable people and we couldn’t take it anymore.
Good article. But I thought it was well established that nobody dies from Covid, directly. All Covid deaths are from some other more proximal cause that itself may be caused by Covid.
I’ll bet dying with Covid is relatively rare. For example, if I have Covid and get held up by leftwing terrorists on the way to the hospital and get shot in the head, that would be dying with Covid.
If I have a cancer and get Covid on top of it, and then die while I still have the Covid, I suppose it might be difficult to tell in some circumstances. But not all. (A distant cousin who is 79 or 80 has some sort of blood cancer and did get Covid on top of it. He recovered from the Covid in about a week’s time.)
Anyhow, I question whether that question of dying with or from Covid is really a significant factor in analyzing the data as to how the pandemic is progressing.
Just the rapid increases of people getting tested could give the impression the virus is spreading rapidly. Given the propensity of experts to not question their own hypotheses, they don’t consider this possibility.
Susan,
Ayn Rand had a very interesting concept. It was called “moral inversion”. At a certain point in time, a society gets to a point of moral inversion. Literally, the good is taken for evil and the evil is taken for good. By any objective standard, Ron DeSantis did it right and Andrew Cuomo did it wrong. Yet, the corrupt left-wing media actually continue to speak as if it was the other way around. This is evidence of moral inversion.
One last thing. Ayn Rand predicted that unless there was a very quick change from the state of moral inversion it implied that the society would imminently collapse. For you see, as you might have surmised, the good is not evil and the evil is not good.
Regards,
Jim
There’s definitely a strong push to make us East Coast California. I blame the New Yorkers. And California economic immigrants.
They need to sit down, shut up, and let the Florida Man maintain the freedom they fled their gulags for.
This is Romans 2-3.