Fact-checking of claims made by DeSantis’ COVID response experts

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. A year after the COVID-19 outbreak temporarily shut down much of the economy and plunged the country into debates over masks and barricades, Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday convened a panel of health experts at his state Capitol to validate the actions he took against the pandemic.

One by one, the experts gave justification for DeSantis, whose insistence on lifting closures, reopening schools and undermining mask mandates was scrutinized as the public health crisis unfolded. The handling of the virus by the Republican will undoubtedly be an important issue when he has to get re-elected next year.

News4Jax has made two of the claims made by experts through the Trust Index. The first claim we are checking was made by dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University.

“I think the masks were not only ineffective but harmful,” he said.

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Here is a list of some medical organizations that recommend people to wear masks to stop the spread of Covid-19:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• The World Health Organization

• The American Medical Association

• The American Academy of Pediatrics

• The Mayo Clinic

Dr. Earlier Thursday, before a U.S. Senate committee hearing, Anthony Fauci addressed the COVID-19 response, wearing masks.

“Let me just say for the record that masks are not theater, but that masks are protective,” Fauci said.

According to dr. Fauci there is currently no scientific data proving that masks are harmful or ineffective.

On the Trust Index, we note the claim that masks are ineffective and harmful to not be true.

Another allegation made by the panel comes from Sunetra Gupta, a professor of theoretical epidemiology at the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford when asked about social distance after being vaccinated.

“Since I recommend most non-immune people not to wear masks or do social distancing, you can guess my answer to people who are immune.”

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On this claim, we look at whether social distancing is recommended to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The CDC says ‘Since people can spread the virus before they know they are sick, it is important to stay at least 6 meters away from others, if possible, even if you – or they – have no symptoms.’

The World Health Organization says: “Stay safe by taking simple precautions, such as physical distance, wearing a mask …”

Medical experts agree that COVID-19 is primarily in the air. Therefore, they agree that if you are socially removed from someone who carries the virus, you are less likely to get sick.

On the Trust Index, we therefore note that the demand for social distance is not necessary, is not true. There is scientific evidence that proves that social works are removed.

The experts he has gathered come from some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, but their opinion is rebuked by many leading scientists, including Fauci, who last year called the anti-lockdown, pro-herd immunity ‘nonsense’.

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Thursday’s panel reflected the governor’s claims that locks and mask mandates did little to spread the virus – and possibly did more harm than good by damaging people’s mental health and instilling fear in some not to seek medical help with the risk of exposure. themselves to the virus.

“I think the blockade was the biggest single mistake in public health,” said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford Medical School who helped write the Great Barrington Declaration, said. This is a petition claiming that lock-ups and other measures have produced a number of unintentional. consequences that may affect long-term public health.

The two other authors of the statement, dr. Martin Kulldorff of Harvard University and Gupta of Oxford University also joined the governor during Thursday’s round table. Dr. Scott Atlas, a radiologist who had no formal experience in public health or infectious diseases, took part when then-President Donald Trump named him a key pandemic adviser last summer. Atlas later resigned.

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“It’s clear at the moment that this lockdown and contact detection and masks could not prevent the resurgence of the disease during the winter,” Kulldorff, a professor of medicine at Harvard, said.

At one point, Florida was one of the focal points of the disease, which led DeSantis a year ago to close businesses and to distance itself socially. As the Florida economy polluted jobs, he insisted on reopening the economy. He then moved to reopen schools.

“The data could not have been clearer that our state has fared much better than many others, especially not those who have strictly locked up their residents,” DeSantis said in a statement after the round table.

Researchers have collected a lot of data on the spread of the coronavirus, which infected more than 121 million people worldwide and killed nearly 2.7 million. In the United States, the pandemic was responsible for the deaths of at least 538,000 people, including more than 32,000 in Florida.

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Some studies show that masks and restricted group activities such as indoor eating can help slow the spread of the coronavirus, but it is less clear why states with greater restrictions by the government have not always fared better than those without them.

California and Florida in particular have investigated because of their similar results despite different approaches.

Despite California’s cautious effort to restart, the COVID-19 rate was similar to that of Florida, according to data from the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The death toll for both countries is close to the middle. New York, which like California had relatively strict restrictions, had one of the worst records in deaths per capita after being the country’s early epicenter for coronavirus.

Some researchers warn against interpreting data too simply.

“There are a number of other factors that need to be considered to understand why mortality rates differ in different parts of the country,” said Professor Glenn Morris, director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida.

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Despite allegations by the governor’s panel members that masks, social distance and contact tracing were ineffective, Morris argues that the measures are in fact slowing down the spread of COVID-19.

‘It does not make sense not to use all the tools we have to delay disease transmission, prevent deaths and long-term complications, and limit the opportunities for further evolution of the coronavirus, leading to the emergence of new strains and stem variants that are transmitted faster and can cause worse diseases, ”he said in an email to The Associated Press.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a potential Democratic rival in the governor’s race, spoke to DeSantis about “increasing disinformation.”

“We do not need a round table to know that expanding access to vaccines needs to be done to save lives and jobs,” Fried tweeted.

While DeSantis is gradually lowering the age criteria for access to coronavirus vaccines – it is now 60 years old – its critics are urging it to do so more quickly.