He never misses a chance to be an asshole
DeSantis decides to let some parents keep their kids from dying. Big of him:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is now allowing healthcare providers — including pediatricians and children’s hospitals — to order COVID-19 vaccines from a federal program for children between six months and 5 years old, a reversal from earlier this week when providers were prevented from preordering doses, White House officials told McClatchy.
The decision will expand access to pediatric coronavirus vaccines for parents across the state, which, under DeSantis’ previous position, would have been limited to seeking vaccines at a select number of community health centers and facilities participating in a federal retail pharmacy program.
The DeSantis administration is pushing back aggressively against the notion that its position has changed, with a spokesperson from the Florida Department of Health telling McClatchy that it never planned on preventing private healthcare providers from ordering doses. But those private providers were unable to place orders before a Tuesday deadline from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to obtain initial doses over the first two weeks of availability.
It could take up to two weeks for deliveries to arrive based on orders placed Friday. “We are encouraged that after repeated failures by Governor DeSantis to order COVID-19 vaccines even after every other state had ordered, the State of Florida is now permitting healthcare providers to order COVID-19 vaccines for our youngest children,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told McClatchy. “We believe it is critical to allow parents everywhere to have the choice to get their kids vaccinated and have a conversation with their pediatrician or healthcare provider.
DeSantis said a couple of days ago that kids don’t need the vaccine and it’s nothing but disinformation. Now he’s saying that they haven’t reversed anything by agreeing to allow parents to have their children vaccinated. He’s lying.
Over the course of the week, officials in DeSantis’ administration told reporters that COVID-19 posed “practically zero risk” to children and, contradicting federal public health agencies, claimed the risks of vaccinating infants outweighed the benefits. “We were distributing this when it first came out because a lot of people wanted it and there wasn’t enough supply. Well, there’s a surplus of this. Doctors can get it, hospitals can get it,” DeSantis said. “But there’s not going to be any state programs, that are going to be trying to, you know, get COVID jabs to infants and toddlers and newborns.”
By the state refusing to pre-order, as every other state in the country did, Florida doctors are going to be delayed in getting the needed vaccines. And without a statewide program people without insurance are probably not going to be able to get them. But hey, what’s a few babies getting sick when you’re trying to cultivate a reputation as the biggest right wing troll on the planet so you can become president of the United States, amirite?
In a briefing with reporters on Friday afternoon, Dr. Ashish Jha, White House coronavirus response coordinator, said DeSantis’ initial stance was “unconscionable” and that developments over the last 24 hours marked an “important change.” “On whether this is a reversal or not, I will say the following: Yesterday, pediatricians in every state in the country could order vaccines, or had the opportunity to order vaccines for their offices, except for pediatricians of the state of Florida.
As of today, pediatricians now have that choice,” Jha said. “Something clearly changed between yesterday and today in the state of Florida. “The state of Florida intentionally missed multiple deadlines to order vaccines to protect its youngest kids,” Jha added. “Elected officials deliberately chose to delay taking action to deny Florida parents the choice of whether to vaccinate their children or not.”
Ron DeSantis is probably going to be the GOP nominee if not in 2024 then in 2028. And he is a monster.