FL Democrat Mayor Misleadingly Claims DeSantis Has “Failed” to Give County COVID Assistance
December 29, 2021 Updated 4:07 P.M. ET
ORLANDO (FCV) – Tuesday, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings (D) slammed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), claiming, contrary to evidence, that DeSantis has failed to give testing assistance to the county.
“We have not received any assistance from the state of Florida at our testing sites,” he claimed.
“‘Where is Ron DeSantis now?’”
FCV reached out to the Florida Department of Health for comment.
“There are no unmet resource requests – from municipalities, hospitals, or private practices,” they said.
Many large pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens conduct COVID-19 tests. Other locations provide COVID-19 tests in addition to pharmacies. Testing is done at the local, not state, level.
“On Monday, entities in Orange County had the resources to conduct 10,000 tests in one day,” they continued, demonstrating that Orange County does not lack testing resources.
The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is less severe than previous variants, despite a stark uptick in caseload. Studies from countries like South Africa and the United Kingdom have shown a sharply lowered risk of severe disease associated with the Omicron variant.
While cases in Florida have reached all-time highs, the Omicron variant has been compared to the common cold, given its mild symptoms and severity. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently cut isolation time in half, from 10 days to 5 days.
