Florida Democrats attack DeSantis on COVID while he expands antibody treatments to patients

Democratic lawmakers from Florida attacked Gov. Ron DeSantis for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic during a surge of the Delta variant, even as the Republican chief executive opened new centers to assist patients with free, cutting-edge antibody treatments.

DeSantis has prohibited schools from imposing mask mandates, which the Democrats said is the wrong approach. Democrats also criticized DeSantis for preventing private businesses from requiring patrons to show proof of vaccination.

"Today is the first day of school in Broward County, yet DeSantis is willing to leave our children, faculty and staff in harm's way with his COVID quackery," Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said on a press call Wednesday.

"I've said it before and the last two weeks just confirmed it for me, this governor is not protecting Florida from public health threats. He is a public health threat. How many records does Florida need to break before the governor takes his job in this pandemic seriously? How many children, staff and teachers need to get sick or die until he stops pandering to the COVID conspiracy crowd?" she added.

While Democrats ganged up on the governor, DeSantis on Wednesday visited one of the new treatment sites his administration has opened to provide monoclonal antibody treatments to COVID patients in an effort to hasten their recovery and avoid hospitalization. He used Twitter to decry efforts to politicize the pandemic.

"Those who try to politicize COVID treatments are doing a disservice to those who may be deterred from seeking life-saving treatments," he tweeted. "Monoclonal antibody treatments have a proven record of reducing the need for hospitalization and are available free of charge to patients."

Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, who is running again for governor, argued that DeSantis is spending too much time positioning himself for the 2024 presidential election during the pandemic.

"It's unbelievable that he abandons his responsibility as the chief executive officer of our state in the pursuit of the Republican nomination for president in 2024," he said on the press call. "It's appalling to see. That kind of rank ambition is not what we need."

Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch said that the governor should "get off of the campaign trail and we need him to do his job because the political games that he's playing here are costing Floridians their lives."

Wasserman Schultz was asked if she has confidence in DeSantis' ability to oversee COVID-19 booster shots, given that the governor often touts high rates of vaccination among the most vulnerable Floridians.

"I don't have the confidence in Ron DeSantis to, you know, share a three car funeral. I mean, this is a man who is allowing the explosion of COVID to occur again and dismissing it as just being seasonal,” she replied.

DeSantis' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.