DeSantis calls out Fauci, Birx, ’15 Days to Slow the Spread’ on three-year anniversary

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (FLV) – Gov. Ron DeSantis said people are still “clinging to failed policies” three years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic and touted Florida for “standing for what’s right.”

DeSantis held a press conference Thursday to reflect on “3 years to slow the spread,” referencing former President Donald Trump’s 2020 initiative at the beginning of the pandemic.

“And so here we are three years later, as I mentioned, they’re still clinging to failed policies,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis pointed to how Florida kept businesses open during the COVID pandemic and “saved countless jobs in the state.”

He said if Florida had “policies of other states,” a lot of businesses “probably would have failed.”

“So you know, this was a presumably, a woke virus,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis stood against mask mandates and lockdowns despite facing criticism.

In 2021 he made comments that it is “totally unacceptable” for the government to impose those mandates on parents and kids.

In 2022, the governor’s administration filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration for its continuation of the nationwide transportation mask mandate.

DeSantis talked about how Florida “never did” the mask mandates and banned vaccine passports.

“You shouldn’t have to choose between a job you need and a shot that you don’t want,” DeSantis said.

The governor discussed the results of not following suit of other states during the pandemic.

He said in 2022, Florida had “record setting” tourism, even with “some of the international restrictions” that were imposed on air travel.

DeSantis mentioned how Florida’s Gross Domestic Product grew 23% higher than the rest of the U.S. and how Florida is the “fastest growing state” in the U.S.

He said the state is number three and four in fourth grade reading and math in the first post-COVID National Assessment of Educational Progress.

“And our excess mortality increased less than California and New York states that obviously pursued a much different course,” DeSantis said.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said “it’s not possible” to give DeSantis “enough credit for what he did,” referring to going against the grain “over things that made sense to him” during the pandemic.

Ladapo said it’s “important to keep in perspective exactly what happened” during the pandemic and said the media is “recreating reality.”

“Because one of the things that the media are, they’re just so brilliant, I mean, it’s so sinister, how good they are at this, is recreating reality,” Ladapo said.

Ladapo said “the reality” is that the “direction” Florida went under DeSantis’ leadership during the pandemic was “absolutely correct.”

“He was absolutely correct,” Ladapo said. “It was the right decision to get the kids back in school. It was harmful to the kids to keep them out of school, it was the right decision to encourage people to do what they want based on their tolerance for risk, their preferences, their values, how, who they wanted to spend time with. That was the right decision.”

Ladapo said the mRNA COVID vaccine has a “terrible safety profile” and said at “this point,” he’s “not sure if anyone should be taking them.”

“The media, they work overtime to rewrite reality to make people believe that what is happening isn’t actually happening. These vaccines have a terrible safety profile,” Ladapo said.

The surgeon general said the most “consistent thing” the CDC and FDA have done is “deny the truth.”

Ladapo said “the reality is” Dr. Fauci, Dr. Walensky, and doctors at the FDA were not “making decisions” for society’s “well being.”

“These individuals have been making decisions that I don’t know what the hell they’re organizing, but it is not your well being,” Ladapo said.

“It’s not my well being, it’s someone else’s agenda. And that’s unfortunate, and that’s not something that we’re doing here in Florida, not under the governor, not under the Florida Department of Health,” he continued.

Ladapo said the decisions made in Florida were the “right things to do […] whether or not people want to admit that or not.”

“The decisions that we made prioritizing the fact that people or people and humans should be respected for their preferences and their ability to make decisions,” Ladapo said.

Ladapo said “the fight isn’t over.”

“So yes, we’re here talking about COVID-19. But the rewriting of reality, to control your behavior, and to control your thoughts and your beliefs, it is an ongoing battle that they are waging,” he said.

“We need to know about the gain of function research, we need to know everything about the lab leak, we need to know about the role of Dr. Fauci in all of this, to make sure that he is held accountable,” DeSantis said.

“And we just need to resolve that we won’t let it happen again.”