Guest column: DeSantis touts treatment, but 'gutless' on vaccines — even his own

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Former President Trump and I don’t agree on much, but his recent assessment that politicians were “gutless” if they refused to admit they received a COVID-19 vaccine booster was spot on. Presumably this was a shot at Florida governor and potential 2024 presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis.

As the governor’s office announced its refusal to enforce a federal policy mandating health care workers be fully vaccinated, DeSantis appears determined to ride his COVID-19 management record straight to the White House.

But I can’t get past his refusal to answer whether he got the booster. When asked on Fox News whether he had received the booster shot, he responded “I’ve done whatever I did, the normal shot and that at the end of the day is people’s individual decisions about what they want to do.”

Mizrahi
Mizrahi

Huh? He has made no effort to clarify that answer. Despite loudly and repeatedly touting the benefits and availability of monoclonal antibody infusions, he has been negligently quiet regarding the even more beneficial and available vaccines.

Look, COVID-19 vaccines should be low-hanging fruit. They are free, safe and overwhelmingly life-saving on a population level. Yet somehow, he perceives that admitting he is boosted is playing with political fire.

This is insulting, dangerous and pathetic. If more Floridians had been fully vaccinated and boosted, fewer Floridians would be dead. There is no debate in the medical or public health community on this matter. Even though roughly two out of every three Republicans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Governor DeSantis finds it more politically advantageous to dodge questions about boosters than to outright encourage a safe, life-saving injection. Doesn’t sound like someone you should want making decisions for the state, let alone an entire country.

Sounds pretty gutless to me.

Jonathan Mizrahi, MD, is an oncologist and native of Jacksonville, having graduated Mandarin High School in 2006. He currently lives in New Orleans.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Guest column: DeSantis touts treatment, but 'gutless' on vaccines