HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital nears completion of $60M expansionCharlotte County extends time residents can live in RVs, mobile homes
FILE – This May 4 2021 file photo shows Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, center, speaks during a news conference at West Miami Middle School in Miami. Several states scaled back their reporting of COVID-19 statistics this July 2021, just as cases across the country started to skyrocket, depriving the public of real-time information on outbreaks, cases, hospitalizations and deaths in their communities. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP, File) As soon as next week, President Joe Biden is expected to lay out his plan for a federal vaccine mandate, and Gov. Ron DeSantis says he plans to fight it. Gov. DeSantis held a news conference at Lee County’s Florida Department of Health in Fort Myers Thursday on monoclonal antibody treatments. During the conference, he made it clear it’s unfair for anyone to lose their job if they refuse to get vaccinated. DeSantis told us he’s going to contest the mandate in court the moment it comes down from the feds. He said he thinks he’s got the legal standing to do it, and he said angry business owners are ready to fight with him. DeSantis took particular offense to the idea of mandating vaccines for first responders. “I am offended that like a police officer could potentially lose their job,” DeSantis said. “They were not given the ability to work from home; they didn’t get to Zoom in, to protect us, ain’t gonna work to protect the public on Zoom. You got to be out on there. They were there the entire time; the firefighters were out there the entire time. And if someone had COVID, they’d have to go and expose themselves. For months and months and months, this has been going on.” DeSantis then called on Florida lawmakers to pass a law to protect the jobs of people fired for refusing to comply with the president’s mandate. He was joined by newly appointed Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. We pressed him on the science behind vaccine mandates, and his answer on WINK News at 6 might surprise you. Watch again in the player below or click here.