DeSantis is leaning on vaccine skepticism to revive struggling campaign
Gov. Ron DeSantis had hoped his response to the coronavirus pandemic, which helped him to a resounding re-election in Florida last year, would produce similar results in the Republican presidential primaries.
But despite leaning on his Covid-19 record, Mr. DeSantis remains adrift in the polls, trailing badly behind former President Donald J. Trump, whose administration he has excoriated for the way it dealt with the pandemic. Mr. DeSantis points to how he guided Florida through the pandemic — reopening schools and businesses early and banning local governments and businesses from imposing mask and vaccine mandates — as a model for the nation.
While Trump recently warned of the return of “Covid hysteria,” his administration presided over the rapid development of the Covid-19 vaccines that many Republicans are now questioning. Research shows the shots have prevented millions of deaths and hospitalizations in the United States. But during the summer, Mr. Trump recognized told Fox News that the shots in his party were “not something great to talk about.”
Mr. DeSantis has tried to exploit that anti-vaccine sentiment as a way to pry primary voters away from Mr. Trump, publicly sowing doubt about their safety and effectiveness against the coronavirus. Scientific experts have labeled his views — and his administration’s decision to recommend Floridians under 65 not get the updated Covid-19 shot — as dangerous and extreme, even as many acknowledge that the school closures Mr. DeSantis is opposing resistance, have lasted too long in the past. some states.
On Wednesday, Mr. DeSantis again tried to rally vaccine-skeptical voters to his side, headlining a town hall on “Medical Freedom” at a ski resort in Manchester, N.H., along with Florida’s Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo. At the event, hosted by Mr. DeSantis’ super PAC, Florida’s governor emphasized that federal public health agencies had spewed “nonsense” during the pandemic and needed a complete overhaul.
He claimed that the Covid shots were rolled out without proper clinical trials and that federal officials had lied or been outright wrong about the benefits and risks — a position that has been roundly condemned by a wide range of public health experts, academics and scientists. .
“We know the federal government has covered this up in many different ways and we need a reckoning,” the governor said.
Mr. DeSantis has had little success in maintaining his criticism of the Trump administration’s Covid-19 policies, demonstrating the former president’s remarkable resilience toward Republicans in the face of criminal charges, mounting attacks from rival candidates and his own verbal missteps.
In interviews with The New York Times in early candidate states, many voters said they did not blame Mr. Trump for his response to a new and unknown virus, and that he was doing his best in an uncertain situation. Such attitudes are common even among some of Mr. DeSantis’ supporters.
“I’m always inclined to give President Trump some slack on the epidemic because he listened to people who supposedly knew what they were talking about,” said Richard Merkt, 74, who attended the town hall on Wednesday and said he plans to go vote. for Mr. DeSantis during the New Hampshire primary. Mr. Merkt is a former New Jersey lawmaker who ran for office in New Hampshire, where he retired.
Bob Wolf, an undecided voter from Iowa, said he admired Mr. DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic but did not blame Mr. Trump. “When Trump was in charge, I don’t think everyone knew what the facts were,” Mr. Wolf, a 44-year-old firefighter, said in an interview this fall.
Yet Mr. DeSantis is sticking to his Covid policy as a pillar of his campaign.
In September, he and Dr. Ladapo recommended that Floridians under 65 not get the updated Covid shot that targets the more recent variants of the virus. Those guidelines contradicted advice from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which had recommended the shot for most Americans six months and older.
At the town hall, Dr. Ladapo Mr. DeSantis.
“To read the data, to come to a conclusion, to know that that conclusion is right, and all these PhDs and MDs from Harvard are wrong? That takes courage,” says Dr. Ladapo, who himself has a degree from Harvard.
Florida was an early leader in vaccinating older residents against Covid, but achieved much lower vaccination rates for younger age groups as the governor turned from an outspoken advocate to a skeptic of shots. A New York Times analysis in July found that Florida, unlike the nation as a whole, lost more lives to Covid after vaccines became available to all adults, and not before.
Mr. DeSantis has suggested that he is the only Republican who can capture voters in the general election who are angry about the administration’s response to the pandemic, especially since Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist, is in the race is on. as a third party candidate.
“RFK Jr. will be a platform for anti-lockdown and anti-Fauci voters, if Trump is the nominee,” Mr. DeSantis said last month, in a reference to Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s former top infectious disease expert , which he has said should be prosecuted. “If I’m nominated, they all go to me.”
When Mr. Kennedy was still running in the Democratic primaries against President Biden, even Mr. DeSantis suggested that the longtime liberal could have a place in his presidential administration — a clear sign that he hoped to court supporters of Mr. Kennedy who share his views on vaccines.
But so far, Mr. DeSantis’ efforts to break into Republican territory have failed.
Although the Florida governor has generally high approval ratings among Republican voters, Trump has maintained his dominant leads in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. A recent poll showed that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley had overtaken Mr. DeSantis in Iowa — where he has risked his entire campaign. Ms. Haley was ahead of him in both cases, according to polling averages New Hampshire And South Carolina.
Not only have the governor’s criticisms of Covid vaccines produced little political gain in the primaries, scientific experts are also characterizing them as dangerous public health policies.
Dr. Paul A. Offit directs the vaccine education center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and is part of the FDA panel of outside vaccine experts that approved the vaccines. He said tens of millions of Americans under the age of 65 suffer from underlying medical conditions that increase their risk of serious illness or death from Covid.
‘Does he think that only people over 65 are at risk?’ he asked, referring to Mr. DeSantis’ refusal to recommend the shots for younger age groups. “We have unfortunately gone from scientific illiteracy to scientific denial. Science doesn’t matter.”
Dr. Scott Rivkees, Florida’s state surgeon general for more than two years under Mr. DeSantis, said the state was now quite isolated in its approach to Covid vaccinations.
“I am not aware of any other states that have said that persons under the age of 65 should not be vaccinated against Covid,” said Dr. Rivkees, who left the administration in September 2021 and is now a professor at Brown University’s School of Public Health.
Mr. DeSantis’ team dismisses such criticism as more grumbling from a “tyrannical medical establishment” that has led the nation astray during the pandemic.
“His actions have exposed the ‘experts’ for the political actors the country now knows them to be — and that’s why they continue to attack him with botched science and false narratives,” said DeSantis campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin . a statement. He said that as governor, Mr. DeSantis had “prioritized the truth” and “as president would do the same for our nation.”
Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement: “Ron DeSantis’ attempt today to revive his old and tired anti-vaccination drive reminds voters that he played political games with Florida’s response to Covid. cheap attempt to score political points with the extreme MAGA movement.”
Public health authorities are praising Mr. DeSantis for pushing for Florida schools to open their doors to students in the fall of 2020. Many experts now agree that too many school districts offered only remote learning for far too long. But they have criticized him for questioning the Covid shots.
Mr. DeSantis claimed Wednesday, as he has done before, that federal authorities misled people into believing the vaccines prevented infection. In fact, injections were authorized based on evidence that they reduced the risk of serious illness and death, not infections.
The governor also alleged that Dr. Ladapo had correctly identified the risks of the shots for young men. But the heads of the FDA and the CDC warned Dr. Ladapo publicly said his statements were misleading, saying such misinformation “puts people at risk of death or serious illness.”
Mr. DeSantis also played one state grand jury investigation he instigated what he claimed was possible criminal misconduct by Covid vaccine manufacturers almost a year ago. Critics called it a political stunt, and so far it has gone nowhere.
But at the town hall, Mr. DeSantis suggested the issue would continue to be raised during the campaign, saying, “Maybe there will be a report or something like that soon.”