In September of last year, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo boldly announced that the Florida Department of Health that he runs, along with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, would be working to eliminate all vaccine mandates in the state. While Ladapo said some mandates would be eliminated by the state health department, eliminating other mandates, he noted, would require action by the governor and state legislature.
Tag: Ron DeSantis
In July, the American Academy of Pediatrics, which was recently criticized by United States Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for its major financial backing from and cozy relationship with Big Pharma, launched an effort urging state and local governments to eliminate virtually all exemptions parents can claim to protect their children from the plethora of vaccine shots required for attendance at school or daycare. On Wednesday, Florida State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced in a speech at an event where he shared the stage with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis the commencement of an effort backed by Ladapo and DeSantis to take the opposite course of action — eliminate all vaccine mandates in the state.
Politico reported Monday that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has started the Florida Freedom Fund. That news by itself sounds promising considering DeSantis has taken significant action in the state to advance freedom, including resisting the imposing of coronavirus crackdown measures much more than did most governors. In his May of 2023 “Prescribe Freedom” speech during his run for the Republican presidential election, DeSantis highlighted this record and his opposition to implementation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in an effort to distinguish himself as the pro-freedom candidate in the primary contest.
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When a Gallon of Wine Is Not Enough
Say you are planning a big event for which you’ll want to have on hand a bunch of wine. State legal restrictions may allow you to only buy relatively small bottles of wine from a local store. In Florida. the legal maximum amount of wine in wine bottles sold to the public has been set at a gallon, a little less than four liters.
In a post last week, I pondered whether Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis would stand up against talk by frontrunner Donald Trump, and several other Republican presidential primary candidates, favorable to the United States going to war against Mexico.
A week later, it appears the answer is “no.” Instead of opposing the call for war on Mexico, DeSantis is advocating for it.
On April 10, I wrote about Republican presidential candidates being open to pursuing war on Mexico — sending the US military into Mexico to fight drug cartels despite the opposition of the Mexico government to such intervention.
Donald Trump continued last week his effort to present himself as the peace candidate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. Trump took another big step in this this endeavor when, during a Wednesday CNN “town hall” event in New Hampshire, he stated, when asked if as president he would continue the United States government sending money and weapons to the Ukraine government and whether he supports Ukraine winning its war against Russia, that the important thing to do is stop all the killing by settling the war quickly. Trump insisted that as president he could bring about such a settlement “in one day, 24 hours.”
Also last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a much-talked-about potential primary competitor for Trump, headlined events on Thursday and Friday at which he signed bills into law and made presentations that could help to define himself as the freedom candidate in the Republican presidential primary should he end up throwing his hat into the ring.
Over the last year and a half, many state health department leaders across America have been leading the charge against freedom. In the name of countering coronavirus, they have been demanding that businesses, churches, and community organizations shut down, and that people stay in their homes, wear masks, “social distance,” and take experimental coronavirus “vaccines.” Those demands and more make up the coronavirus crackdowns that these tyrannical bureaucrats have been pushing on Americans.
In sharp contrast with this mob of tyrannical bureaucrats, on Tuesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis refreshingly appointed Joseph Ladapo to be the leader of the state’s health department. The new state surgeon general, in his comments at the Tuesday appointment announcement event, spoke boldly in favor of freedom and against using health fearmongering, including the overstating of dangers from coronavirus, as an excuse to violate individual rights.
A few people over at Reason have been head over heels for the experimental coronavirus vaccines, some of which are not even vaccines under the normal meaning of the term, being pushed incessantly by many people working in politics and media. But, you may have thought the libertarianish media organization with the slogan “free minds and free markets” would draw the line at posting at its website one of its senior editors endorsing government mandating people take the shots. If so, you thought wrong.
There was some great news last month when the state of Florida won, in a United States district court, a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mandates, including for vaccine passports, under the CDC’s draconian and unprecedented “conditional sailing order” imposed on cruises in the name of countering coronavirus. I provided details about the court decision in an article here.
Unfortunately, late Saturday night — before the district court’s preliminary injunction was set to take effect on Sunday, a panel of three judges of the 11th Circuit decided by a two to one vote to stay the preliminary injunction pending appeal. The appellate court’s decision thus dictates that the CDC’s mandates on cruises, and cruise ship crews and passengers, remain enforceable for the time being.