Get ‘em Joe!
Joe Biden is accusing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of dragging his feet in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
"This deadly pandemic does not discriminate along party lines, zip codes, gender, race and certainly not state, county or city lines," said the former Vice President and Democratic presidential primary front-runner in a statement on Wednesday.
Biden also accused DeSantis of ignoring public health officials and urged him to order a statewide stay-at-home order, similar to New York and Ohio. "In this moment of growing uncertainty and anxiety, Floridians want — and deserve — to hear from the public health officials leading the charge," said Biden. "To get through this, we need our leaders to listen to the public health experts and their guidance. The stakes are too high to wait any longer.
"While other large states continue to take strong, urgent, and sweeping action to stop the spread of COVID-19, Florida has not," he continued. "I urge Governor DeSantis to let the experts speak to the public and explain why this is the case."
Here’s some more info:
The state of Florida is at 1,467 coronavirus cases with a death toll of 20. Unlike several other states hit hard by the pandemic, Florida is not under a "stay-at-home" order.
Gov. DeSantis recently said all state residents age 65 and older should stay home and self-quarantine for the next 14 days. This also applies to people of all ages with significant health conditions.
He added that anyone who traveled from the New York City area to Florida in the last three weeks will need to self-isolate for 14 days.
DeSantis is also encouraging any non-essential businesses to promote telecommuting.
DeSantis has faced criticism for his lack of action to close crowded Florida beaches. Many of the state's cities and counties took it upon themselves to close the beaches.
DeSantis eventually closed beaches in Broward and Palm Beach counties, where most of the state's coronavirus cases have taken place. He also directed all of Florida’s state parks to close.
Biden easily won the Florida primary earlier this month.
Now here’s why DeSantis is wrong:
“You wouldn’t want to do (stay-at-home orders) on a community where the virus hasn’t spread," DeSantis said. "There are going to be upheavals on their lives and that’s not something we want to do flippantly. The (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has not said to do a statewide lockdown.”
The trouble with that, experts say, is DeSantis and state health leaders can’t be sure where in Florida the virus has spread. There isn’t nearly enough testing to judge the breadth of the outbreak and it could take up to two weeks for those carrying the virus to display symptoms. As it is, the state’s number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 continues to rise, to more than 1,400 on Tuesday.
Biden demanded that DeSantis “let the experts speak to the public and explain why" the state isn’t taking the same actions as New York, Ohio and other states.
“To get through this, we need our leaders to listen to the public health experts and their guidance,” Biden said. “The stakes are too high to wait any longer.”
Florida is a huge state with a large senior citizen population. There is absolutely no reason for the state not do more to flatten the curve. Luckily for us, Biden actually has a plan to battle the COVID-19 pandemic unlike our current President who just keeps lying to the American public and is putting lives at risk. Click here to read more about Biden’s plan.
Once you’re done reading it, click here to donate and get involved with Biden’s campaign.