On June 16th Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended his state’s decision not to order COVID-19 vaccines for children ahead of anticipated federal approvals. DeSantis backed his health department’s decision, stating he is opposed to administering the vaccines to young kids.
“We are affirmatively recommending against doing COVID vax for young kids, particularly the 6-month-old, the 2-year-old little kids,” he said at a press conference.
Florida is the only state in the country not to send an ask for the vaccines for kids 6 months to 5 years, a choice that critics state might postpone accessibility for Sunshine State homeowners.
Its health department has actually picked to have moms and dads look for dosages from their individual doctors instead of managing circulation at the state level, the Miami Herald first reported.
“Our department of health has been very clear,” DeSantis said. “These risks outweigh the benefits and we are recommending against. That isn’t the same as banning it. People can access it if they want to.”
The choice has actually resulted in criticism from the Governor’s political opponents today, who asserted that Floridians will deal with more of an obstacle in protecting dosages.
Charlie Crist, a Democratic hopeful for Florida Governor, called it “reckless and irresponsible.”
“Governor DeSantis has once again failed the people of Florida when it comes to protecting them from the pandemic,” Crist said in a statement. “And his latest failure is aimed squarely at our children.”
DeSantis argued Thursday that young kids are at low danger from COVID-19 and blamed “media hysteria” for stiring adult worry.
“It’s because of a lot of misinformation,” he asserted. “That’s why they are scared. To do an emergency use for a 6-month-old or a 1-year-old simply to placate anxiety — that’s not the standard when you’re doing this. The standard is if this is safe and effective.”
Just saying… this was not the topic of the presser yesterday. A local reporter asked @GovRonDeSantis about this randomly during the Q&A. So this response was not prepared remarks at all. He is genuinely that interested and knowledgeable on this topic. https://t.co/Hf2PtwcR1x
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) June 22, 2022
DeSantis remained in Callahan, not far north of Jacksonville, when he was inquired about an argument on vaccines that took place Friday and remarks from the Biden administration that he had actually changed course and was purchasing vaccines for children.
“The White House is lying about it, surprise. Not surprised the White House would lie, definitely not surprised that legacy media would amplify the lie, because that’s what they do,” DeSantis said. “The state of Florida, they came out with an article saying the state of Florida has not ordered, it’s Department of Health has not ordered mRNA jabs for the babies. Yes, we didn’t. We recommend against it.”
“We are not going to have any programs where we’re trying to jab 6-month-old babies with mRNA,” he added. “That’s just the reality. I think what they thought would happen was that we’d be embarrassed about it.”
On Friday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre informed press reporters that Florida had actually reversed course and is enabling healthcare suppliers to order the mRNA vaccines for children under six months to 5-years of age.
“Even though Governor DeSantis reversed course and is now ordering vaccines, we will pull every lever to get pediatricians across Florida vaccines as quickly as possible,” she told McClatchy. “This is an encouraging first step, and we urge the state to order vaccines for its state and local health departments, so that all Florida parents have the opportunity to get their children vaccinated.”
Earlier in the week, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo stated he disagreed with the Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation to administer COVID vaccines for kids under 5.
On Monday, DeSantis stated the state would not be ordering any mRNA vaccines for kids..
“That was always that, we still have not ordered it, we are not going to order it,” he said. “Now what they’re saying is because practitioners and hospitals can order it, somehow we’ve reversed. I said from the beginning that we’d be able to do that. We don’t have the authority to prevent it, and quite frankly if someone wants to make a different decision, I would just caution people to look at the actual data in the clinical trial.
