DeSantis’ latest move on the Covid vaccine draws comparisons to Trump

• DeSantis has asked a grand jury to open an investigation into life-saving Covid-19 vaccines.
• He promotes the vaccinations, but has become more and more skeptical.
• The actions show a stark contrast to Trump’s policy on the pandemic.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stepped up his attack on COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday, comparing the Republican governor’s handling of the pandemic to that of former President Donald Trump.

Speaking from a studio in West Palm Beach, DeSantis hosted a 90-minute roundtable with Covid vaccine skeptics and asked the Florida Supreme Court to establish a state grand jury to investigate “crimes and misdemeanors” related to Covid-19 vaccines. Saving vaccines ahead of a potential battle with not only Trump, but President Joe Biden.

Since 2020, DeSantis has been a key political rallying cry for pandemic policies. He advised federal health officials to reopen schools and Florida businesses before most other states and suspended mask and vaccine mandates backed by Biden.

DeSantis in 2010. If he decides to enter the 2024 presidential race, the pandemic is one area where the governor could highlight the differences between himself and Trump, whose administration has launched a record number of COVID-19 vaccines.

While the governor has not directly criticized Trump or said whether he intends to pursue the presidency, DeSantis based his latest announcement on the geographical proximity of Mar-a-Lago, the private oceanfront club and property where Trump lives in Palm Beach.

DeSantis often places mainstream ads in places that convey subliminal messages. For example, he signed a bill last year in Brandon, Florida, banning workplace vaccination mandates, in support of the anti-Biden chant “Let’s go, Brandon,” who took to officially calling Biden “Brandon.”

By contrast, Trump has been more outspoken in his attacks on DeSantis. Shortly after the election, Trump discredited DeSantis because he had endorsed the governor four years earlier, helping him secure the GOP nomination.

He called DeSantis “DeSanctiminious” and said governors who don’t disclose their vaccination status are “gutless.” Many news outlets interpreted the comment as a dig at DeSantis, who did not share whether he had received a Covid-19 booster shot.

It is not clear whether Trump is leaning toward success with his Operation Warp Speed ​​program on the Covid-19 vaccine. Dr. Paul Offitt, chief infectious disease specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, called Trump the “biggest scientific and medical advance in my lifetime,” saying Trump should “take the bow.”

Republicans “shouldn’t feel the need to distance themselves from this,” Trump said, adding that he doesn’t understand why they don’t brag about it more.

“I bring him a modest guy who doesn’t like to put his name on things,” Offit joked of Trump, whose eponymous buildings adorn the skylines of American cities.

DeSantis leads Trump in new poll.

Several signs indicate that Operation Warp Speed ​​may be to blame for Trump. For example, Republicans are less likely than Democrats to get vaccinated, and Trump supporters booed when he encouraged them to get vaccinated.

Meanwhile, DeSantis is seen as one of Trump’s most formidable opponents in the presumptive presidential race. DeSantis leads Trump by 23 points among Republicans in a USA Today-Suffolk University poll released Tuesday.

But if the governor were to run for president, he would have to compare himself to Trump. The news media, Democrats — and even many Republicans — have repeatedly portrayed DeSantis as similar to Trump.

Many GOP operatives see Trump’s pandemic policies as an opportunity to attack Trump on the right, Insider first reported in September.

GOP strategist John Thomas, who started the DeSantis Super PAC, told Insider that “pushing back and ensuring accountability on anything related to Covid is a win for DeSantis.” “This case serves as a reminder to the American people that they made the right calls during COVID to fight lockdowns and vaccine mandates.”

The Biden administration has often encouraged Trump on his pandemic policies. But President Trump initially shut down the U.S. and his administration issued guidelines in favor of mask-wearing.

Steven Cheng, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign, told Insider that the Trump administration is “relentless” in securing medical supplies and letting each state decide what’s best for its residents. In his response, he said nothing about DeSantis, instead accusing Biden of “failing to build on the successes of the Trump administration that he inherited,” adding that more people have died of COVID-19 under Trump than Biden.

“Operation Warp Speed ​​is a once-in-a-lifetime initiative that gives people the option of using therapeutics if they want them,” he said.

Other Trump supporters directly criticized DeSantis. Alex Brusewitz, CEO of political consulting firm X Strategies, characterized DeSantis’ actions as “revision history.”

“Reality be damned, that’s what’s expected of politicians who want to climb the political ladder,” he told Insider. “Ron DeSantis was Florida’s biggest anti-vaccination campaigner when he had ‘good’ PR, and now, as he tries to position himself for the next campaign, he’s fudging the facts and hoping no one notices. Typical untapped political opportunity, but MAGA voters won. He’s not fooled that easily.”

DeSantis established a new public health group

DeSantis held events across Florida to encourage and encourage seniors to get the COVID vaccine, though vaccine skeptics later appeared at several events and issued health advice that conflicted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For example, the FDA and CDC have cleared the bivalent booster for children younger than 6 months of age based on a person’s previous Covid-19 vaccination. In contrast, the Florida Health Agency recommends that healthy children not get the shot. Countries including Denmark and Sweden have similar guidelines.

DeSantis plans to go even further in his second term after being sworn in on Jan. 3. The governor announced Tuesday that he plans to push the state Legislature to pass a law that would bar hospitals from taking medical leave from doctors who talk about reducing COVID-19. Experiences.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladappo is launching a surveillance program with the University of Florida to investigate sudden deaths of people infected with the Covid-19 virus, and is assigning Ladappo to lead a “public health integrity committee.” The committee provides guidance on covid vaccines and other health care issues.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine at Stanford University, is one of the committee members. Bhattacharya, who was participating in the roundtable, has been in the news for the past few days after conservative journalist Barry Weiss revealed that Twitter had reduced the visibility of his tweets in protest of the Covid lockdowns.

DeSantis on Tuesday gave some hints about the grand jury investigation. He accused the government of underestimating vaccine side effects, such as myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, in teenagers and young men, citing the CDC’s guidelines that initially and incorrectly stated that people could not get the coronavirus if they were vaccinated.

“I think people want the truth and I think people want accountability,” DeSantis said. “You need a thorough investigation into what happened.”

He accused the pharmaceutical industry of potentially misleading the vaccine, and said the grand jury “will have a legal process to obtain more information and bring legal action against those who have committed wrongdoing.”

The DeSantis roundtable focused on Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines, not Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, and found that it was occasionally associated with increased blood clotting. The scientists at the round table repeatedly stressed that other non-Covid vaccines should be considered safe.

Moderna did not respond to Insider’s questions about DeSantis’ latest announcement. Pfizer spokeswoman Sharon Castillo defended the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines in an email to Insider, saying they have “saved hundreds of thousands of lives” and “allowed people around the world to live their lives freely.”

The vaccines have prevented more than 18 million hospitalizations and 3 million more deaths, the Commonwealth Fund estimates.

Several regulatory agencies approved the vaccine “after a rigorous and independent review of the scientific data on quality, safety and efficacy,” Castillo said, adding that real-world studies show the vaccines work to prevent serious disease.

Offit, who advises the CDC on vaccines, told Insider he didn’t think DeSantis understood the regulatory process, adding that companies submit all information to the Food and Drug Administration when they apply for approval. The CDC then makes recommendations about who should get the shot, and vaccine results are monitored at multiple sites — which is how scientists now know about myocarditis and blood clotting side effects in some people.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Offit said. “The whole thing is that the data is being hidden, you need to have the integrity of this control system. The system has integrity.”

But Offitt differs from the CDC in that he doesn’t see how the CDC’s data at this point should encourage young, healthy people to get another Covid-19 booster shot. Instead, incentives should go to people at high risk of hospitalization, he said.

DeSantis was asking a “fair question” about child stimulation, Offit said, but “he loses credibility when he makes false claims about safety.”