Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s top health department official are directly contradicting federal health recommendations and warning residents against getting a new COVID-19 booster, saying there’s not enough evidence it provides benefits that outweigh risks.

DeSantis, who is running for president, and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo discussed the vaccine with doctors Wednesday on a Zoom call livestreamed on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. It repeated much of what they said a week ago during a live event in Jacksonville, in which they warned against the vaccine that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended this week.

Ladapo’s previous warnings against COVID-19 vaccines prompted a public letter from federal health agencies saying his claims were harmful to the public.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This kind of mistake will cost a lot of peoples lives. On the other hand, those people are most likely older and voting REP, so he is killing off his own base.

    • ForestOrca@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      This is the part I really don’t get. How does ‘killing your own base’, and adding to the healthcare burden with more long covid cases, work in the long or short term? Or at all. I guess they are just thinking till '24, but we’ve got a long winter season of SARS-CoV-2, RSV, & Influenza before we get to November '24. And your right, people will die, and be disabled in greater numbers if they follow what DeSantis says.

      • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Not to mention, this is after the party had a midterm that was historically bad and lost races by small margins. Killing their base with COVID may have very well cost them important elections, and now this idiot is doubling down on that “strategy”.