Florida Mask Dustup Enhances Governor's Standing Among Conservatives

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis kicked over a liberal hornet’s nest this week when he told a group of students that they didn’t have to wear a mask in his presence.

Although he enraged the left, his act enhanced his reputation among Floridians and confirmed the time had come for the rest of America to catch up with him.

As DeSantis walked into a room at the University of South Florida to make a statement, he was met with a group of students lined up behind the podium, each wearing a cloth mask.

"You do not have to wear those masks,” he said as he entered the room. “Please take them off. Honestly, it's not doing anything. We've gotta stop with this COVID theater. So if you wanna wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous."

Talk radio and TV host and former NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch replied, “Absolute rockstar,” in a view shared by other conservatives.

But a rash of liberal journalists and commentators sprang into action.

Washington Post reporter Amy Wang smelled a story. Although acknowledging it was a “Long shot,” she asked, “if you were one of those students standing behind DeSantis (or a parent of one of those students) who wants to talk, please [direct message] me” on Twitter.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes believed he caught DeSantis in a moment of hypocrisy.

“Incredible predictable how conservative ideology goes from ‘Hey it should be my choice; don’t tell me what to do!’ to ‘We are *absolutely* gonna tell you what to do once we have the power to do it,’” he said.

The Miami Herald released an editorial, and referred to DeSantis’ statement as a “rant.”

“DeSantis’ attitude was classic Karen — the slang for self-centered, entitled white women who berate service workers and call 911 on Black people,” the Herald’s editorial board wrote. “During the pandemic, a new breed of Karens has emerged, the ones set off by other people wearing masks.”

But apparently both Hayes and the Herald didn’t hear the governor telling the students, “So if you wanna wear it, fine.”

The mother of one of the students spoke to WFLA News Channel 8 Wednesday evening, and also complained about DeSantis.

WFLA’s Justin Schecker reported that the mother “says she's very upset and it was ‘shocking’ for Gov. DeSantis to ask her son & the other high school students to take off their masks.”

During the entire interview her son stood beside his mother, wearing a cloth mask. The mother, who did most of the talking, was maskless.

Finally the American Public Health Association (APHA) corrected DeSantis on mask effectiveness.

“Sorry, governor. It's science, not theater,” the APHA tweeted. Wearing a mask protects not just you, but people around you who are immunocompromised or can't be vaccinated against COVID-19, especially in counties where transmission is high. Thanks to all who continue to follow safety guidance.”

At the DeSantis event there appeared to be fewer than a dozen students. The few adults present looked fairly young (DeSantis is 43) and in apparent good health. In short, they were all in a low-risk category.

The State of the Union address was held the evening prior to the DeSantis press briefing. The room was filled with several hundred attendees — some in their 80s and many more in their 70s. President Biden is 79.

Although all of the attendees appeared to be maskless, the APHA was silent about that event.

In March 2021 Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, was perhaps the first person to refer to mask-wearing as “theater” during one of his confrontations with Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“If we’re not spreading the infection, isn’t it just theater? You’ve had the vaccine and you wearing two masks, isn’t that just theater?” asked Paul, who is also a physician.

Fauci stubbornly denied it that day. But 10 months later the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) threw in the towel on the issue. It admitted that cloth masks are ineffective against the transmission of coronavirus.

And as a capper, yesterday DeSantis posted a brutal video demonstrating just how hypocritical the left is on the issue. Watch it here and you’ll be cheering and fist-pumping (and thinking DeSantis 2024?)

At the beginning of the pandemic, over-caution was understandable — we were dealing with the unknown. But it’s been two years.

There comes a point at which one realizes that public health policy isn’t being governed so much by medical science as it is political science. Both Sen. Paul and Gov. DeSantis recognized that early on.

It’s time for the rest of America to catch up.