Florida bill to ban COVID mask, vaccine mandates makes progress in House

The Florida House is considering a bill that codifies Gov. Ron DeSantis' executive orders that would ban COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates.

House Bill 1013 was reported favorably by the House Health & Human Services Committee on Monday and is sponsored by Rep. Phillip Griffitts, R-Panama City Beach.

The bill would prohibit business entities, governmental entities and educational institutions from imposing COVID-19 testing, mask and vaccination mandates.

DeSantis issued executive orders in 2021 that superseded school mask mandates and another that prevented the requirement of vaccine passports by government entities or businesses. In January, the second-term Republican governor said Florida was a "refuge of sanity" during COVID and that he wanted lawmakers to pass reforms related to mandates.

When asked to describe what "harm to society" means by state Rep. Lindsay Cross, D-St. Petersburg, which is language within the bill, Griffitts said that it is clear that COVID mandates were not based on freedom.

"I think we've learned over the past two and a half plus years that there has been some direct harm based on the science that we've received," Griffitts said and further stated that Florida wants to protect the rights and freedoms of its citizens and that the bill takes discriminatory practices out of what is already current Florida law.

Griffitts also clarified that decisions made by the Legislature are based on science, and that the science has changed dramatically since the pandemic began.

"Some of the science we've seen over the last two years has been proven to be false," ." Griffitts said. "A lot of elected officials were asked to be public health experts over the last few years and very few public officials are health experts."

State Rep. Lindsay Cross, D-St. Petersburg, questioned the integrity of the bill and stated that it goes too far.

"I just think this bill goes way too far, I think we've gotten to a point where we use science only when it serves our own best interests," Cross said, adding that she believes scientists are being villainized.

State Rep. Ashley Gant, D-Miami, stated that she believes the bill will negatively affect small business owners who could face litigation if they refuse to serve unmasked patrons because they want to protect their staff.

HHHS Committee Chair Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, who himself was hospitalized after contracting COVID-19, supported the bill and stated that the science that mandates were based on have been found to be false.

"This bill doesn't attack scientists, this bill attacks false scientists, because the scientific method is the notion of constantly testing theories that are made. You have a belief and you're constantly testing it." Fine said.

Fine added that the public was told repeatedly what were believed to be definitive statements, that the 'science was settled' by people who claimed to be scientists, who turned out to be wrong.

"They didn't say this is what we believe, this is what we think, this is what our best judgement said; they said 'You must do this or else', that is not science and as a result people were harmed." Fine said, adding that children not being able to attend school because of COVID mandates was nothing short of the worst case of child abuse that the U.S has ever seen.