Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has once again struggled on the news media when he proposed a bias in covering the pandemic on Wednesday, though there are concerns about more contagious strains of COVID-19 that could spread during meetings covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers win in Super four Com.
“The media is obviously worried about that,” DeSantis said during a news conference in Venice.
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“You do not care so much if it is a peaceful protest,” he continued. “You do not care so much when you celebrate a Biden election. You only care if they are people you do not like.”
DeSantis has regularly claimed that there is a prejudice against Conservatives and Republicans, especially among reporters who have asked difficult and sometimes uncomfortable questions about the governor’s handling of the public health crisis.
But when a journalist asked DeSantis about the spread of a more contagious variant of the virus in the context of super-distributor events following the Super Bowl, the governor considered it an unfair hit against the home side.
“I’m a Bucs fan,” the governor declared. “I’m damn proud of what they did Sunday night.”
The Bucs hometown planned a boat trip along the Hillsborough River on Wednesday afternoon – a celebration that officials say is more conducive to social distance. They invited fans to participate, but encouraged them to wear masks and keep their distance along Tampa’s Riverwalk.
After the victory of the Buccaneers, celebrations broke out throughout the region – and maskless crowds rioted in the streets.
DeSantis himself does not – at least sometimes – wear a mask while attending the Super Bowl. He later said that according to the Politico report, he could not drink with a mask.
“How the hell would I be able to drink a beer with a mask on? Come on,” the governor was quoted as saying by a Politico reporter.
The consequences for public health for the celebrations will not be known for weeks, said dr. Jay Wolfson, a professor of public health and associate dean of the University College of South Florida, said.
“It’s very difficult to discipline people who only wanted to leave once. We have been locked up for a year, ‘he said. “Now we sit back and do the supervision and monitoring.”
The Florida Department of Health reports that nearly 1.8 million people have been infected with the disease since the outbreak began a year ago. More than 28,000 have died so far.
While hospitalizations have declined due to the virus – according to the state census Wednesday, it is less than 5,000 – there are still concerns about any additional casualties.
Specific problems are that new virus strains that are more contagious, including a variant that was first detected in the UK last year and can now make a foothold in Florida.
There are now 343 known cases of the British variant in the Sunshine State – more than twice as many as in California, which is almost twice the population of Florida.
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State health officials said the high number is also an indication of the state’s more robust testing program for the new variants.
The spread of the more contagious forms of the virus also raises concerns about the efficacy of current vaccines against new variants.
“We have seen no data or evidence to suggest that these vaccines are ineffective,” the governor told his news conference, adding that his state would keep the rate to vaccinate its significant senior population.