Biden, DeSantis faceoff raises questions of politics versus public health: ANALYSIS – Everett Post

Everett

(WASHINGTON) – The war of words between President Joe Biden, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis and fellow GOP governors escalated Thursday, raising new questions about how much politics and politicians should be involved in potential life and death public health decisions.

In the White House, Biden addressed the ongoing debate – and in some cases the outright culture war – about children having to wear masks in school, arguing that it shouldn’t be a “political argument,” when clearly the bulk of it should be of which is to be.

“This is not about politics. It’s about protecting our children, ”he said. “Thanks to the mayors, school principals, educators, local leaders who campaign against the governors who politicize mask protection for our children.”

Under pressure to act more forcefully while the Delta variant rages in the south, Biden said earlier this week that the White House is “reviewing” how much power the federal government has to intervene when DeSantis threatened to provide state funding for schools and civil servants who accepted masks withhold mandates in Florida – the state with the highest number of pediatric COVID-19 cases – by the time children go back to school.

It comes after weeks of mounting tensions as some Republican governors – particularly in Florida and Texas – continue to battle mask and vaccine mandates as COVID-19 cases skyrocket in their states. It also follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which are issuing new guidelines recommending general indoor masking for all staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools regardless of vaccination status.

Arthur Caplan, a bioethics expert and founder of the Department of Medical Ethics at New York University School of Medicine, told ABC News that while the federal government has the power to intervene – and should – be the responsibility of the state’s elected officials and at the local level to rely on experts and not make public health decisions that are shaped by appeals to their political base.

“Politicians must bow to the best scientific and medical opinion, consensus-based opinion, that they can get in an epidemic,” said Caplan. “People who often skipped science classes after high school shouldn’t tell us how best to deal with an infectious disease outbreak.”

But even the most scientific minds can be influenced by politics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Expert, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, in an interview published Thursday, hinted she regretted her decision in May to take off masks if you are vaccinated.

“There was tremendous pressure on vaccinated people to do things they wanted to do again,” she told the Wall Street Journal.

Pressured to follow the science but no doubt also aware of the polls showing what Americans want, Biden has often reiterated that he relied on health professionals such as the country’s foremost infectious disease expert, Dr Führer, in making decisions. To take precaution, rather than, as some critics urged, use his presidential powers and influence to take more action at the federal level.

DeSantis has taken a different approach with its political base and has been sending out donation emails in the past few weeks exploiting the conservative hostility towards the president and Fauci.

Fauci said Thursday on ABC’s “GMA3” that it was “so unfortunate” that an “ideological divide” is preventing some people from getting vaccinated.

“We are dealing with a public health crisis and you are addressing a public health crisis on a public health basis,” said Fauci. “Ideology, division has no place here and yet it seems to dominate in many areas.”

Caplan also said it was political – and the outcome, in the case of DeSantis, is harming people in Florida and beyond.

“The core of his party is still anti-mandate, be it vaccine or masks, and has never shown any enthusiasm for tough public health action, that’s just political and it’s true, even though Trump is vaccinated, Abbott is vaccinated,” said Caplan. “It’s not like the conservative GOP leadership hasn’t been vaccinated.”

But thousands of their voters are not.

A July poll by ABC News / Washington Post shows how partisanship has infected pandemic attitudes and behavior.

Ninety-three percent of Democrats say they have either been vaccinated or will definitely or likely will; that drops to 49% of Republicans. Independent is between the two at 65%. And while Republicans are far less likely to get an injection, only 24% see themselves at risk of infection.

“The bottom line is you look at a map, see where the dead and hospitalized people are, and then wonder if the governor’s policies in Texas and Florida make sense,” Caplan said.

Some Republican governors, who have issued orders effectively banning local officials from requiring masks in schools, continued to have heated arguments with the White House this week as children, many of whom are too young to be vaccinated, are in the return to classrooms across the country.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked Wednesday about a recent headline in the New York Post calling Biden “knee caps” from DeSantis, saying the government was not out to get DeSantis but wanted to that he is part of her efforts to fight COVID-19 – which, she said he has not.

“Our war is not against DeSantis. It is because of the virus that we are trying to cover the kneecap and it does not seem to want to participate in these efforts to cover the virus with a kneecap – hence our concern, “she said at a press conference that afternoon.

DeSantis slammed the White House early Wednesday and vowed that he would “vocalize” against any attempt by the government to find a way to pay the salaries of school officials who oppose his state ban on mask mandates threatens to withhold government funding from those who adopt them.

“If you talk about the federal government coming in and outvoting parents and our communities, we would be vocal about it,” DeSantis told reporters in St. Petersburg outside an elementary school.

The governor has faced at least two lawsuits from parents, and several school districts in Florida have already voted, despite his order, to require masks to make young people eligible for vaccinations.

“It is common sense to require adequate accommodation for a vulnerable child, immunocompromised or at risk of serious illness, from a public institution to take simple precautions to ensure that the most vulnerable children are safe” according to a lawsuit, adding the order allegedly “harms the children whom the laws discriminating against people with disabilities were made to protect”.

The White House has praised the “courage” of school officials who chose to defy the order and see if unused funds from the federal government’s US rescue plan could be used to make up the difference in funds holding DeSantis threatens. Texas, meanwhile, is treating a similar hand.

Ever since Biden named Texas Governor Greg Abbott, along with DeSantis, last week as a leader to “help or get out of the way,” Abbott has also defiantly stood behind his order to ban masks – even though hospitals are so overwhelmed Abbot has called on medical workers outside of the state to curb the surge in COVID-19 cases there.

By order of Abbott, institutions that defy the governor’s mask mandate will be fined $ 1,000. At least two school districts there have announced that they still need masks and the tide appears to be turning in their favor.

“Any school district, public university or local government official who decides to oppose GA-38 – which prohibits government agencies from prescribing masks – will be brought to justice,” Abbott said in a tweet.

Given growing concerns about sending children back to school due to a surge in pediatric COVID-19 cases, it is not clear under what authority the White House will actually intervene when it comes to fines for educators. Psaki reiterated on Wednesday that “how can we help local leaders who put public health first to continue their work,” and spoke to the Ministry of Education.

Biden on Tuesday protested against governors restricting schools’ powers to mandate without naming names, saying, “I find this totally counter-intuitive and frankly insincere,” but admitted that he currently did not believe to have the powers under the law to intervene directly in the mask mandate of a state government.

“I don’t think I’m doing that yet. We’ll check that, ”said Biden.

Caplan told ABC News that the federal government “can and should” examine how Texas and Florida receive certain federal benefits and put them on hold – “until they drop those absurd bans and return to solid public health advice”.

“I would try to put the governors on the pain of the economic consequences of their ill-conceived, morally wrong policies, and the justification is that you are putting the rest of the country at risk,” Caplan said. “Because they not only endanger their own citizens, but also the rest of us.”