Ending the Great Pandemic Debate
As the 2024 GOP Primary heats up, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is trying to rewrite history down in Florida during the covid-19 pandemic. It’s finally time to end the debate.
In January of 2020, we experienced a once-in-a hundred year version of a global pandemic. What proceeded this attack on our immune systems and way of life came the response to the Wuhan lab leak.
From “fifteen days to slow the spread,” to masks and social distancing, and of course, those big, beautiful vaccines, our success here in the United States in retrospect is now measured on how much you did, or did not do to try and defeat covid-19.
As we enter into a new election cycle and the 2024 GOP Primary, there are those within the Republican establishment who want to weaponize the narrative that the current frontrunner, former president, Donald J. Trump did a lesser or subpar job than that of Florida Governor, now announced presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis did in their pandemic responses.
For as many of the DeSantis online team members, who I refer to as the Florida Paid Influencer Industrial Complex will tell you that Ron DeSantis kept Florida open, stood up to Dr. Fauci, defeated mask mandates while ending covid and wokeness at the same time. Luckily, anyone who lives in Florida, can access an internet search engine or is on Twitter and knows that is quite far from the case.
Detractors of Donald Trump will argue that as the President, he “gave the keys to the country over to Fauci”, kept children out of in-person learning and mandated the much flawed, covid vaccines and booster shots.
It is those arguments, when presented as facts that don’t necessarily hold much water when analyzed a bit further.
Because most of the pandemic response agenda items were kicked down to the the states and Governor’s who either did or did not enact some type of dystopian measures onto their constituents. Som
The fact of the matter is that there were very few political individuals who actually handled the panic well; the reason being was that the levels of uncertainty we collectively faced in the form of a virus that spread across the globe which we knew very little about were at an all-time high.
And for those who did know what was going on regarding the virus and it’s origins, the Dr. Fauci’s, Peter Daszak’s and Alex Azar’s of the world kept the truth from not only the American public, but from the President of the United States, both of which these career bureaucrats were supposedly serving.
History has show that the entirety of the former Vice President, Mike Pence-led, Covid-19 response team were simply serving themselves and padding stats to their already inflated and sketchy legacies.
That being said, at some point the buck must stop somewhere, and in this case you must lay the blame for both the good and the bad stemming from the pandemic at the feet of Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.
Both men did in fact, follow the science. In real time, and as information became available, Trump and DeSantis both reacted to the data in a way which they both deemed fit to protect the maximum amount of their citizens and governable interests at the time.
Did it turn out the science, or lack thereof was inaccurate, biased and in some cases even just made up?
Yes, but if you go to your personal physician looking for the cure for an ailment and they provide you with a plan to get better do you just ignore the doctors orders or do you trust the science and follow suit?
I think we all can agree that we follow suit.
When it came to the development of the covid vaccines, and Operation Warp Speed, Donald Trump presented a plan that was drawn up by and supported by a vast majority of the biopharmaceutical industrial complex. At the time it seemed like the only logical avenue to getting the country operating at pre-pandemic levels again, while MSNBC and CNN ran in real-time, covid “death-o-meters” across your television screens, pressuring the powers that be to find a solution fast.
Truth be told, the covid vaccines were finally made readily available to the public (ages 16 and up) between December 11-15, 2020, or roughly 40 days before Donald Trump left office. Those under the age of 16 couldn’t receive a shot until the last week of May, in 2021.
Since becoming available, Donald Trump has taken credit for the execution of Operation Warp Speed and for the lives that may have been saved (or lost) because of the vaccines availability, however, the covid vaccines were never mandated or meant to be mandated in any context during any point of the the first Trump Administration. And they certainly were not developed for children, according to Dr. Peter Navarro, who was the go between the Covid Response Team and the Oval Office during the pandemic.
Now did Trump battle with Fauci, both publicly and privately about reopening the parts of the country, especially in democrat ran, locked down states where schools and businesses remained shuttered for way too long and for Fauci to endorse alternative therapeutics like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine?
Sure.
Did Trump also hope that the vaccines through Operation Warp Speed would make it out to the public before the 2020 Presidential Election to use as an achievement and not in the days following the race after it was called for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris?
Absolutely.
Meanwhile, down in South Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis did what he thought at the time was the best way to keep Floridians safe and healthy when dealing with the covid-19. Bars and beaches, skate parks and schools across the Sunshine State did close down for a period of time. And some counties in Florida were treated much harsher and with more pandemic scrutiny by DeSantis’ office throughout the course of covid-19 as well. While some other states and Governors chose not to close down at all, or mandate masks etc., DeSantis did and we cannot simply opt, rewrite or revise history now simply because DeSantis is currently in a head-to-head matchup with Donald Trump in the GOP primary.
The state-level distribution of the covid vaccine lumps DeSantis into the same boat as other Governors who advocated to get them, as it is well-documented that Ron DeSantis was ecstatic when the first 20,000 doses of vaccines arrived at a Tampa hospital back in late 2020, and later worked exclusively with statewide grocery store-based, pharmacy chains like Publix in moves that he considered to be “historic” at the time. He also promoted the vaccines and their untested, unknown efficacy in several local television spots through 2021.
DeSantis also openly praised Dr. Fauci and wore and mask in public frequently, as did almost everyone else at the time did.
With hindsight being 20/20, it’s easy to see where both Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, like so many others fell short in handling their offices, states and the country throughout the course of the covid pandemic. It didn’t help that the Fauci, Walensky and Azar-led, Covid Response Team, CDC, NIH and FDA ran a power-grabbing operation over the American public for nearly three years costing our country countless jobs, lives, our children’s social and educational development and of course trillions of dollars.
What it does conclude is that both Trump and DeSantis did what they could with the time and resources they had in the best interests of their constituents, or all of us.
It’s pretty hard to argue any angle otherwise, because that’s just simply not the case. If Trump had governed outside of the lane in which he did during the pandemic, it’s widely considered that the Nancy Pelosi-led House Democrats would have initiated a third impeachment investigation, this time hanging tens of thousands of covid-related deaths around the neck of the 45th President.
The same narrative runs true for DeSantis, who at the time used all of the tools and resources he had available to manage Florida to the best of his ability. The fact that he reopened the state considerably faster than others who also locked down proves that he took the initiative to first, trust the science, and second, operate off his own data and not just what was coming out of the CDC.
DeSantis now openly advocates against Dr. Fauci, the governments overall handling of the pandemic and is even investigating possible side effects related to the untested and unproven covid vaccines all of which are good, however we must remember they’re coming post-covid and weren’t the directions DeSantis went in at the start of the pandemic.
So whether you are rooting for Donald Trump to claim an unprecedented third consecutive GOP nomination or have left Team MAGA and think that Ron DeSantis is the man to take on the dems in 2024, between the two candidates there is much room for argument.
While their policy platforms will surely differ as we head into the summer months, it is more than likely there that you’ll find more relevant and spirited debate.
Sticking to things like covid might seem like a way to one-up your opponent when battling online or in the twitterverse, however, the American public, quite frankly is more than over and done with the pandemic as it’s become a relatively polarizing item.
It’s not like you’ll see an argument as laid out or developed as you’ve just read in this piece on the debate stages later this summer.
Because all of the debates are in fact, sponsored by Pfizer.
• Rone is the Executive Producer and Host on the Steak for Breakfast Podcast, a proud partner of the Pulse Media Group. You can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts at: