Hurricanes are largely devoid of politics, of course, with Republicans and Democrats fervently opposed to them. Just as with hurricanes, where our state goes to extreme lengths to inform people about the forecast and dangers of approaching storms, we should be doing the same thing with COVID-19: provide more data, not less. What greater argument for getting the vaccine is there than the data point that roughly 95 percent of all hospitalizations are of unvaccinated patients? Why is my state not providing that information? If there’s legitimate criticism to be made of DeSantis, it’s in the frustrating logical inconsistency in his anti-mandate policy, where he wants to allow individuals to make their own health care choices, but his own state agencies – at his direction – aren’t providing helpful data that many would rely on to make those decisions.Īs a 51-year old parent with a healthy respect for the dangers of the virus, it would be helpful to know the exact numbers of new cases, new hospitalizations, and in particular, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths broken down by vaccinated “breakthrough cases” versus unvaccinated cases. The difference is that vaccines are preventative and cannot help someone who is already infected with covid-19.”ĭoes that sound like DeSantis is anti-vax? Or are media outlets pushing this narrative just anti-DeSantis?ĭeSantis’s inconsistency isn’t doing himself any favors “Both monoclonals and vaccines save lives. “Prevention and treatment are not mutually exclusive,” she said in an email. Of course, you have to stick with it, all the way down to paragraph 20, about two-thirds of the way in, to see how the LA Times literally contradicted its own headline with a direct quote from DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw: Florida is actually among the leading states in terms of overall and partially vaccinated citizens, according to this chart from the Mayo clinic.Īnd what about DeSantis’s “anti-vaccination” position? You don’t need The Capitolist to debunk the lie. So when they toss in the line about “governors in Southern states, where vaccinations lag” in one of the first handful of paragraphs, the reporter (or her perhaps her editor) wants you to infer that one of those low vaccination states is Florida. It’s important to note that almost the entire story, a rather lengthy one at 31 paragraphs, is all about Florida and DeSantis. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas are among leaders touting the antibody treatments even as they downplay vaccination and other measures that health officials say can prevent illness in the first place. The rush has been fueled in no small part by governors in Southern states, where vaccinations lag and hospitalizations are soaring thanks to infections caused by the Delta variant. Republican Govs. Here’s the offending LA Times graph verbatim: The White House tried this same trick last month, and got called on it by the Heritage Foundation, where they talk about “low vaccination states” and then lump Florida in with them as if they are related. The LA Times story was riddled with all the hallmarks of partisan journalism: in addition to the unsupportable claim in the headline, it also included a dirty attempt to paint DeSantis and Florida with the broad brush of being a “low-vaccination state,” implying it without actually saying it. Two weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times ran a story headlined “ Anti-vaccine, anti-mask governors push an experimental antibody therapy.” Other media outlets and political operatives have echoed the narrative. In this first installment, we take a look at a demonstrably false media narrative that has started to gain traction to the delight of progressive opponents of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, that he is “anti-mask” and “anti-vaccine,” and the suggestion that Florida is a “low vaccination state.” And we aren’t trying to do anything with our new “Media Check” feature except body check wayward media outlets like a hockey player bodychecks an opponent into the boards. We don’t hide our pro-business, pro-free market, center-right agenda. Here’s this weekend’s Capitolist wrap-up, which we call “The Wrap.”įact-checking websites are a dime-a-dozen these days, and the worst ones are partisan outlets pretending to be legitimate, unbiased news sources. Every weekend, we look at the news stories shaping the conversations in Florida’s business, public policy, and political worlds.
0 kommentar(er)
