ORLANDO, Fla. — The White House’s top doctor on COVID-19 is now directly criticizing state leaders like Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Dr. Deborah Birx said leaders who now refuse to use COVID-19 reduction strategies as they did in the summer are allowing the virus to spread unchecked.
DeSantis has been adamant that he is not rolling back Florida’s reopening.
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“We have to really understand how contagious, how infectious this virus is,” Birx said.
Birx is accusing governors and mayors across the sunbelt of “not putting in the same policies and mitigations that they put in the summer, that they know changed the course of this pandemic across the south.”
DeSantis has signed executive orders effectively taking power away from local mayors to enact tighter restrictions than the governor prefers.
As cases steadily climb, there continue to be no new safety measures as other governors have enacted.
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Compare that to this summer when we had a spike.
On July 3, Florida was averaging the same number of daily cases as we are now. By that time, DeSantis had halted the reopening at Phase 2.
At the time, he allowed the state licensing agency for bars to close them.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings signed an executive order last week that created financial penalties for businesses found violating the county’s mask mandate and social distancing guidelines.
County leaders said Monday that they don’t have hard data showing businesses with multiple complaints are the source of the virus.
See the full report in the video above.