Last Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisā€™s administration advised residents in his state under the age of 65 to not get the newly approved COVID-19 booster. It was only days later that new data came in: It showed Florida ranked number one in the country for coronavirus-related hospitalizations.

DeSantisā€™s campaign for president has played up his handling of the pandemic as bucking liberal orthodoxy for the good of the state. He championed faster reopenings and appointed Dr. Joseph Lapado, a ā€œvaccine skeptic,ā€ as the Floridaā€™s surgeon general.

Last week, Lapado, who earlier this year altered data to disprove the COVID-19 vaccineā€™s efficacy, claimed that the new booster shots potentially posed a risk to young people, a notion that studies have not backed up. ā€œWith the amount of immunity thatā€™s in the communityā€”with virtually every walking human being having some degree of immunityā€”and with the questions we have about safety and about effectiveness, especially about safety, my judgment is that itā€™s not a good decision [to take the new booster] for young people and for people who are not at high risk at this point in the pandemic,ā€ said Lapado during a roundtable hosted by DeSantis on September 13.

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a national rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations, with a significant uptick in parts of Florida. On the week of September 9, an estimated 2,280 people had been hospitalized with COVID-related issues. Despite these alarming numbers, DeSantis has stood behind Lapadoā€™s comments, claiming the CDC is using Floridians as ā€œguinea pigsā€ for the COVID-19 booster.

Unfortunately, none of this is new for Lapado or DeSantis. My colleague Kiera Butler has extensively documented the governorā€™s war against COVID-19 safety precautions to help further his own political career, often to the detriment of his constituentsā€™ health. In 2022, Butler wrote:

In July, I watched DeSantis speak at the annual conference of Moms for Liberty, a rapidly-growing parentsā€™ rights group founded by two former school-board members in Florida. DeSantis bragged about how his administration had pushed back on the federal recommendation that the youngest children be vaccinated against Covid because they believed that immunity acquired from having contracted the virus was superior to the shotā€¦Yet even as DeSantis crows about his Covid success, his state is reeling from the pandemicā€™s ravages. More than 82,000 Floridians have died of Covidā€”the third-highest death toll in the country, behind the more populous states of California and Texas. And while DeSantis is favored to be reelected as governor, the Republican presidential primary is anything but a sure bet.

  • edric@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Side question - has anyone been able to get the new booster already? My local pharmacies still donā€™t have them available.

    • 2scoops@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I got it this evening thru CVS, but had to go to the town over from mine, as no appts were available on my zip code. The CVS app appears to update availability throughout the day. This morning there was nothing. This afternoon I booked a same day appt. Hope this helps.

        • 2scoops@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I was very luck to have insurance for the entirety of the pandemic, and wasnā€™t ever charge out of pocket, including last night.

    • jeffw@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Yes and no. My pharmacy had it within a day or two, but said my insurance wouldnā€™t cover the new formulation yet