Florida Mayor Slams DeSantis as ‘Craven’ Over Vaccine Claims
In a letter sent on Friday, Mayor Dan Gelber of Miami Beach laid into presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, saying the governor’s advice to Florida residents under 65 to avoid the newly available COVID vaccine is “entirely based on the politics of the Republican primary and not on what’s best for [his] Florida constituents.”
“I have seen politicians do many things I thought were expedient, political, or simply gutless,” Gelber wrote to DeSantis, “These days, people expect as much. But urging your residents not to avail themselves of the one thing that can protect them from severe illness and death in order to revive your struggling campaign, is all of those things and worse. It is simply craven.”
On Sept. 13, DeSantis and Florida’s Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo told Floridians the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration were trying to use them “as guinea pigs” to test the new COVID vaccine that “has not been proven to be safe or effective.” Breaking with the advice of the White House and federal agencies, DeSantis advised residents of the state under the age of 65 to avoid getting the new shot.