Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who polled second in the 2021 CPAC presidential preference straw poll, announced a lawsuit against the federal government and the Centers for Disease Control over their ban of cruise lines, something DeSantis says has devastated the Florida economy despite little science suggesting stopping cruises slows the spread of COVID-19.
Announcing his lawsuit against the federal government and the CDC, DeSantis said, “The federal government and the CDC has locked down this industry for over a year. This is not reasonable, this is not rational, and guess what? If they say that cruising is not safe, even with widespread vaccine availability, all the testing you want, they have now antibody treatments that have been very effective, they have all these different things, it’s a much different situation than a year ago.” He added, “Guess what? People are still going to go on cruises.”
Cruise ships have been banned by the CDC from sailing since March of 2020, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when churches, small businesses, and offices were also closed, but liquor stores, big box stores, and marijuana stores were allowed to remain open. Last fall, the Trump administration reportedly pressured the CDC not to extend the cruise ban into 2021 – something that was swiftly counted by the Biden regime.
“We have tens of thousands of Floridians … throughout the state who depend on the viability of the cruise industry for their livelihoods, their jobs, and their ability to feed their families,” said DeSantis. “We have one of our major industries that has been idled by the federal government for over a year, the cruise-line industry,” he added, “We need to get these cruise lines operating again.”
“Today Florida’s fighting back. We’re filing a lawsuit against the federal government and the CDC demanding that our cruise ships be reopened immediately. This will be something we believe we have every legal right to insist upon,” DeSantis explained. “We don’t believe the federal government has the right to mothball a major industry for over a year based on very little evidence and very little data, and I think we have a good chance for success.”
DeSantis was also asked about his executive order banning vaccine passports in Florida. “We’re not doing vaccine passports in Florida. It’s not necessary, it causes a huge amount of problems, and I think you’re seeing a big groundswell against these,” said DeSantis.
“I was the first one, look, Florida has to lead on all this stuff, I think we’ve figured that out. We led, now all these other states are doing it, banning them,” DeSantis added, “Some of the states that have gone in the direction of doing them? It’s not working out very well, and people are very upset about it.”
Unlike the weak executive order signed by sitting Texas Governor Greg Abbott, DeSantis’ ban prevents businesses from requiring vaccine passports, in addition to the Florida government. This is particularly noteworthy considering the Biden regime intends to use the pressure of the private sector to achieve its goal of vaccine passport usage, something Abbott’s order does nothing to prevent.
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