At a press conference Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the elimination of all previously implemented COVID-19 restrictions for his state. The action removed state-level social distancing requirements and capacity limits for businesses including restaurants and bars. It was a daring move for a state currently recording more than 100 deaths from COVID-19 per day. By contrast, New York remains in a tight lockdown despite experiencing around five COVID-19 deaths per day.
During Friday’s announcement, DeSantis repeatedly referenced a roundtable he had hosted the day before. Instead of ruling merely by instinct or by listening to the sole voices of his health department, DeSantis met with a group of highly credentialed and respected doctors from America’s top institutions to gather information.
The group included Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of Medicine at Stanford University, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a professor at Harvard University Medical School, and Dr. Michael Levitt, a Stanford University professor of Structural Biology and a Nobel Laureate.
During the discussion, DeSantis guided the group through every major COVID-19 issue. For example, DeSantis asked the professors whether general lockdowns should be off the table. Each expert answered in with a forceful “yes.” Kulldorff noted that lockdowns drag out the progression of the disease such that “it will be much harder to protect the elderly because they can’t self-isolate forever.” Levitt stated lockdowns are “a treatment that can often kill the patient.”
One of the most direct and emphatic exclamations came from Bhattacharya, who declared, “Another lockdown would be disastrous.” Bhattacharya noted that, beyond basic education, many students receive nutrition and counseling at schools — locations that also often serve as a way to detect abuse.
Bhattacharya spoke of how lockdowns scare people away from hospitals and prevent children from getting immunizations, concluding, “Lockdown costs are absolutely catastrophic.” Beyond their costs, Bhattacharya also noted lockdowns are ineffective, stating, “Argentina and Spain famously locked down very sharply, and yet they’re still seeing a sharp rise in cases.”
In his announcement lifting restrictions, DeSantis directly referenced the high costs of lockdowns discussed at the roundtable, discussing the excess mortality likely caused by declining emergency room visits. Such a frank discussion of the negative aspects starkly contrasts to other governors…
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