DeSantis Proposes Permanently Ending COVID Restrictions

Facts

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday unveiled a plan to permanently end all COVID restrictions. This includes terminating mask and vaccine mandates statewide in schools and businesses.
• More specifically, it would permanently prohibit vaccine passports in the state and bar "employers from hiring or firing based on mRNA jabs." DeSantis said the policy would also protect "free speech for medical practitioners."
• This comes as DeSantis claims he's seeking to keep Florida a "refuge of sanity" and protect it from the "biomedical security state." DeSantis was a proponent of COVID vaccines initially, but has become critical of them more recently. His opponents, meanwhile, have accused him of spreading vaccine misinformation.
• DeSantis previously called on the state Supreme Court to summon a grand jury to investigate whether pharmaceutical companies criminally misled Floridians regarding vaccine side effects. The request was approved late last month.
• The new proposal comes after DeSantis signed legislation in 2021 banning school mask mandates, and forbidding private employers from implementing vaccine mandates, though those provisions are set to expire in July.

Sources: Daily Caller, CNN, FOX News, and NBC.

Narratives

• Democratic narrative, as provided by AlterNet. DeSantis continues to put politics over health. New COVID cases have increased by 90% in his state over the past two weeks, yet his response is to attempt to strip private businesses of their right to institute health policies that’ll keep employees safe from a deadly virus. It’s unconscionable.
• Republican narrative, as provided by Townhall. COVID science isn’t settled, and too many civil liberties have been trampled on or willfully given up in the face of fear-mongering and the politicization of a health crisis. DeSantis’ proposal is the first step in returning freedom to Floridians and opening the door again to much-needed scientific debate.

Predictions