On Saturday, sixteen months and 637,000 deaths after former President Donald Trump promised Americans that the COVID-19 virus would just go away, Trump ally and governor of Florida Ron DeSantis presided over a state with 15,840 residents hospitalized for a contagious virus that he refuses to acknowledge and take measures to protect people from. A petition started over a year ago was suddenly revived and the number of signatures began to explode, reaching 35,000 by Sunday.
DeSantis has come under fire in recent days as Floridians prepare to send their children back to school with unmasked and unvaccinated staff and students. The governor’s mask mandate ban played well with Trump supporters, some of whom believe that the virus is not real and the vaccine is deadly, but with 85 percent of all Florida hospital beds full, the gain in political points seems hardly worth it.
Newsweek reports that:
‘Florida is witnessing some of the highest rates of COVID-19 infection in the United States as the Delta variant rapidly spreads. On Saturday, the state reported 25,991 more COVID-19 cases, another record daily case count. Newsweek reported that the state is experiencing the highest rate of children hospitalized with COVID-19 across the country.’
The petition notes DeSantis’s mask mandate ban and a number of other reasons why the governor is not fit to run the state in this time of emergency.
‘Aside from this sad fact DeSantis waited until the last minute to issue a stay-at-home order which without a doubt caused the Coronavirus to spread much faster than necessary. The governor has also went directly against CDC guidelines and allowed churches to still have large gatherings. He is not fit to be our governor and needs to be removed as quickly as the constitution allows.’
Twitter had a lot to say about DeSantis, with #RecallRonDeSantis trending on Sunday. Read some of their comments below:
