Desperate after Iowa bust, DeSantis spews — again — dangerous COVID vaccine quackery | Opinion

Hasn’t Ron DeSantis gotten the memo?

The Florida governor’s bet that his approach to the COVID-19 pandemic would get him the Republican presidential nomination has not paid off. No amount of Dr. Fauci bashing and anti-vaccine rhetoric seems to move the needle against Donald Trump. Despite DeSantis’ best efforts, Republican primary voters do not generally blame Trump for taking steps to develop the vilified mRNA vaccines when he was president.

After losing by 30 points to Trump in Iowa on Tuesday, DeSantis threw everything but the kitchen sink at voters the next day, during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. His anti-vaxx rhetoric reached the level of absurdity.

And this is coming from the governor who appointed a Florida general surgeon who altered key findings in a study the state used to justify recommending against the shots for younger men.

“They lied to us about the COVID shots. Remember, they said if you take a COVID shot, you will not get COVID? How true was that? Not at all,” DeSantis said.

“Every booster you take, you’re more likely to get COVID as a result of it.”

DeSantis’ words resemble a false claim on social media last year that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had warned that a new COVID variant was more contagious among people who were vaccinated.

The CDC actually said that the new variant was more likely than prior variants to infect those who had been vaccinated or previously infected, not that the vaccinated were at higher risk, the Associated Press reported. The vaccines remain the most effective way to prevent serious illness, even if vaccinated people can still catch the coronavirus.

DeSantis has often repeated vaccine misinformation or supported people who do. At one of his events in 2021, he stood silently next to a Gainesville city employee who said “the vaccine changes your RNA.” With COVID-19 hospitalizations on the rise last August, his administration, under the guidance of Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, recommended that people younger than 65 do not get the shots despite widespread evidence of their safety and effectiveness.

DeSantis and Ladapo conveniently ignore that it was the coronavirus, not the life-saving shots they claim to be dangerous, that killed more than 1.1 million people in the U.S. and 86,000 in Florida.

DeSantis was pro-vaccine before he was against them. In 2021, he traveled the state promoting the shots to the elderly, saying that “these vaccines are saving lives.” But as the conservative political attitude toward immunization began to shift, so did the ambitious governor. By the end of the pandemic, he was fully on board the anti-vaxx train.

DeSantis’ boasting of his pandemic record doesn’t take into account that, during the 2021 delta wave, Florida residents died at a higher rate, adjusted for age, than people in almost every other state, a New York Times analysis of federal data found. The Sunshine State accounted for 14% of the nation’s deaths between July and October 2021, even though it represented only 7% of the American population.

DeSantis might still have a point when he contrasts his decision to reopen public schools when other states shuttered them for too long. But he doesn’t appear to understand that COVID is in the rear view mirror for many Americans. Attacking Trump for his pandemic policies isn’t catching on even with voters who are skeptical of public health advice. One Iowa voter told the New York Times in November he cuts Trump some slack because, “I don’t think everyone knew what the facts were” when the pandemic began during his term.

DeSantis’ failed attempt to sell his pandemic record is another example of the hodgepodge of messages his campaign has tried to convey to primary voters. He wants to beat Trump by claiming he is more Trump than Trump. He’s appealing to the hard-right and vaccine skepticism, yet he’s supposed to be more electable and less chaotic than Trump.

Being anti-vaxx hasn’t helped DeSantis become president, but, in the end, it’s those who listen to him who pay the price, potentially with their health and lives.

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