Florida Governor Scoffs at Fresh Virus Tactics: ‘Like What?’

(Bloomberg) -- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dismissed the need for major changes in his Covid-19 strategy after the state reported a record number of new cases Friday.

Asked by an NBC reporter why he isn’t implementing new measures to combat the virus, DeSantis responded: “Like what?”

He went on to point out that the state had already banned on-premises bar drinking earlier on Friday, as Texas has also done, and that he had taken measures to secure nursing homes. But DeSantis, a Republican who has mimicked President Donald Trump’s unconcern about the pandemic, showed no sign he was willing to reverse the state’s reopening seven weeks after it began. He said a growing number of young people contracting the disease was an optimistic sign.

“An individual case to me -- I’ve said from the beginning -- is not the most important thing to look at,” DeSantis said Friday from Fort Myers. “Because as you see the cases shift younger, that’s not going to be as significant clinically as if you have nursing home outbreaks or outbreaks among elderly who are going to be more vulnerable.”

Florida reported 122,960 Covid-19 cases on Friday, up a record 8,942 cases. Hospitalizations are also climbing, although DeSantis says the state continues to have ample capacity to meet patients’ needs. Florida hasn’t suspended elective surgeries, as Texas has in its largest cities, which frees hospital beds.

DeSantis said Friday’s numbers showed a continuation of the trend from the rest of the week. Indeed, the Friday report -- based on Thursday data -- showed the highest number of total tests in at least four weeks.

A month ago, DeSantis was regularly boasting about how Florida, with one of the nation’s largest 65-and-over populations, had avoided dire Covid-19 predictions. He was also lambasting reporters.

“You’ve got a lot of people in your profession who waxed poetically for weeks and weeks about how Florida was going to be just like New York,” he said on a trip to Orlando on May 20 with Vice President Mike Pence. “We’ve succeeded, and I think that people just don’t want to recognize it because it challenges their narrative, it challenges their assumptions, so they’ve got to try to find a bogeyman. Maybe it’s that there are black helicopters circling the Department of Health.”

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