As G.O.P. Fights Mask and Vaccine Mandates, Florida Takes the Lead
The New York Times
Florida lawmakers, at the request of Gov. Ron DeSantis, passed new laws sharply curtailing mask and vaccine mandates. Fringe anti-vaccination views met with little pushback.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Early this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis crisscrossed Florida promoting coronavirus vaccines, visiting retiree communities and hospitals, and celebrating people who got their shots.
But it was a remarkably different picture this week, when Florida’s lieutenant governor, Jeanette Nuñez, was a prominent speaker at a rally organized by anti-vaccination activists on the State Capitol steps.
The jarring scene gave vaccine skeptics in Florida a big win and moved the state further away from the guidance of federal public health officials, reflecting how a highly politicized pandemic has only become more so as Republican-controlled states confront the Biden administration’s wide-ranging attempts to ease it.
