Ron DeSantis sparring with Donald Trump over vaccines should give voters pause about trusting him to manage a public health crisis--or the country period

 

The CDC is warning people that this winter there will see a trifecta of viruses hitting the country harder than normal: influenza (the “flu”), COVID-19 and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and that people should take the necessary steps to insure that they are safe. At this point it doesn’t appear that most people are either taking that advice seriously or expect any repeat of lockdowns or mandates. From what I can tell, I am among a very tiny percentage of people around here who at least keep a mask "handy" at all times.

I wonder how many people in the past year have experienced what felt like a continuous tension headache that wouldn't go away effecting memory and eyesight, and felt fatigue and loss of appetite, chalking it up  to a really bad "cold"? Was it something else? Maybe--probably. As they say, ignorance is "bliss."

Of course, there are people who see this in a “political” context rather than a public health one. Elon Musk is continuing to use Twitter as a launching pad to promote far-right conspiracies and is calling for the prosecution of Dr. Anthony Fauci—proving that being smart enough to make a lot of money doesn’t necessarily mean being capable of understanding how to deal with a public health emergency when it is people who are not billionaires who need help. 

And then there is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is reportedly playing a game of “can you top this” with Donald Trump, at least insofar as appealing to the crazy side of the electorate. According to NBC News the other day, DeSantis

At a roundtable he convened of Covid vaccine skeptics and opponents — including his own surgeon general — he formally called on the state Supreme Court to impanel a grand jury to investigate  whether pharmaceutical companies criminally misled Floridians about the side effects of vaccines, a position at odds with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Now why would this “hurt” Trump? Remember “Operation Warp Speed” in which he authorized the cutting of red tape and lengthy trials to get COVID vaccines to the market faster? If there was any “criminal” misleading, Trump was certainly implicated in any effort to “downplay” the alleged side-effects of the vaccines, and DeSantis is likely to play that up in any presidential primary involving himself and Trump.

However, let’s get to the “crazy” part. Have you ever watched a drug pitch on television that doesn’t include a laundry list of side effects and “don’t take this” messaging if you have such and such a condition? Yet doctors still prescribe them, and people pay big money to injest them. A few people did have “side effects” from taking the various COVID vaccinations, but most of those who died already suffered from terminal illnesses. 

Countries like India took this a step further, hiding the true number of COVID deaths by claiming people died from “underlying” illnesses—and that doesn't even include those who were not even tested for the virus in first place, and not just cremated or thrown into rivers. Furthermore, far more unvaccinated people died of COVID than the vaccinated, and we saw many fanatical COVID-deniers die of the virus, many of them publicly regretting their stubborn stupidity.

DeSantis was previously a supporter of the vaccines, and Trump's supporters are busily exposing his hypocrisy on the subject; why DeSantis changed direction is as clear as why Kyrsten Sinema switched to “independent”: he’s a narcissistic opportunist seeking ways to separate himself from the “field." This specifically is in reference to Trump, who appears to be his principal challenger in 2024 if he chooses to enter the presidential primaries. 

The reality is that DeSantis could be even more dangerous than Trump, who is a political clown who allowed his minions to do what they wished as long as it “pleased” him, and often in unlawful ways that were struck down by appeals courts. But DeSantis is a career politician who knows how to snake his way through the “system,” and he was able to get laws passed that have a decidedly fascist bent, such as banning the mention of this country’s racial history in schools because it promotes “hate” against white people. 

DeSantis also sought to pass an “anti-rioting” law that the New York Times noted made it a crime to “stand in a public street or highway during a rally” and banned “groups of protesters near government or commercial buildings.” The potential for police state abuses of this law was such that a Florida judge struck it down, citing that what the law defined as a “riot” or "rioters" was so broad that it effectively banned freedom of speech rights and the right to even peaceably assemble for the purposes of protesting DeSantis’ policies.

People have also questioned DeSantis' mental “health,” especially after he axed mental health funding for the victims of the Orlando massacre. He promulgated new mental health policies designed to find “alternative” means of treating mental health issues that do not involve spending money, and his wife—as “first lady”—has posted on her official website an “initiative” to “redefine” what mental health is and “promote civic and character education and life skills to help students develop into confident and resilient adults.”  In other words, cut spending on mental health and tell victims that if they can’t help themselves, that’s their problem –not “ours.”

I sent an email to the “first lady,” and await a response to it:

OK, like COVID denying where at least 80,000 people in your state died from it, banning teaching of this country’s racist past because it “promotes hatred of white people”—like the governor doesn’t promote hatred of immigrants—and then trying to ban freedom of speech and freedom of assembly opposed to his fascist police state policies, and now here we have people suffering from mental health issues being told to heal “themselves.” I wonder who the “sick” people really are.. And people think he is “presidential” material? He’s worse than Trump.

So I think that sums-up what I think of a DeSantis run for the presidency. We are told that at the moment, polling shows that DeSantis has a significant lead over Joe Biden should that match-up unfold. That holding up depends on a few things, such as if Biden will ignore polling that shows 70 percent of Americans do not want him to run again, and the fact that most people outside of Florida don’t really know who DeSantis is. The more they find out, I suspect the less people will be enamored with him.

In any case, a Trump-DeSantis catfight ought to be “entertaining” at least, and they hopefully will cancel each other out since we don’t need another spoiled child with the instincts of a bully running the country again.