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Gov. Ron DeSantis is building his fledgling 2024 presidential crusade on the intended merits of his response to COVID-19 in Florida, touting the state’s priority of protecting private liberties over mask mandates and vaccine requirements.
But a New York Times report published Saturday suggests that the public’s changing attitude toward vaccines in the pandemic would likely correlate with an unnecessary accumulation of deaths across the state during the brutal Delta wave of summer 2021.
The Times found that most COVID deaths in Florida occurred after all adults had vaccines available, not before, as is the case in many Democratic-led states, as well as nationally.
A spokesperson for DeSantis did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Florida was one of the first successes of the pandemic. The state’s death rate in the first year of the pandemic was lower than that of the other 10 states, the Times reported, and Florida was ahead of the vaccination curve for other people 65 and older in early 2021.
While DeSantis strove to vaccinate older Floridians early on, his method appeared to replace it as the GOP stoked greater skepticism about scientific vaccines. In the spring of 2021, as vaccines became easier to obtain for adults of all ages, DeSantis instead emphasized his opposition to court orders and submitted some vaccine evaluations, according to The Times.
The governor has also supported medical officials who have downplayed the severity of the virus, adding that in September 2021 he appointed Florida state surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who publicly questioned the vaccine’s efficacy and said whether he himself had been vaccinated.
By July 2021, Florida’s vaccine count had dropped from its initial leadership, and vaccination rates among the state’s young adults were below the national average, the outlet reported. The consequences of this downward trend would be fully visible when the Delta variant wreaks havoc in the country in the summer of 2021.
The Times investigation found that Floridians died at a higher, age-adjusted rate than citizens of nearly every other Delta Wave state. Florida accounted for 14 percent of deaths between July and October 2021, though it accounts for less than 7 percent of the country, according to The Times.
Twenty-three thousand Floridians died from Delta Wave, and 9,000 of them were under the age of 65, most of whom were unvaccinated or had not finished their two-dose regimen, the newspaper reported.
DeSantis began recommending vaccines in late July 2021 and cases skyrocketed, the Times reported.
In the past, the governor has questioned the suggestion that his comments about vaccines played a role in the number of cases in Florida, suggesting his opposition was to mandates and not vaccines themselves. But local Florida officials told the Times that DeSantis’ public shift on vaccines was notable.
Dr. Alina Alonso, recently retired Palm Beach County fitness director, told the Times that DeSantis’ message changed from “We’re going to vaccinate everyone over 65” to “Vaccines are really helpful. “
Regardless, Florida’s death rate declined in the fall, as did many other states when the wave subsided. All told, Florida’s age-adjusted number of deaths from the pandemic actually trended higher than the national average, according to the Times.
But DeSantis’ vaccine pivots are being considered, Dan Gelber, the Democratic mayor of Miami Beach, told The Times.
“There are other people in the state who will do whatever he says,” Gelber said. “He’s a popular governor. “