So, here’s what Florida’s fearless leader told his supporters in a campaign email on Monday: “Dr. Fauci is at it again, folks. He took to national TV — where he spends most of his time — to pledge support for a permanent mask mandate for air travel. What started as ‘15 days to slow the spread’ has now descended into permanent Faucism. For COVID authoritarians like Fauci, Biden and their Democratic cronies, these mandates are not about a virus but about them wielding power over others.
“We cannot allow our communities to become Faucian dystopias in which people’s freedoms are curtailed and their livelihoods destroyed. We must fight back.”
The “Faucism” gibe is an unsubtle reference to fascism, obviously. But if we’re talking about suppression of the opposition or dictatorial drift, we can look a lot closer to home.
In a recent essay, the Union of Concerned Scientists had this to say about Florida: “Scientists, researchers, and academics should never have to fear for the safety of their own career simply because they were doing their job of conducting research and making that research accessible to the public.”
The statement is addressing the muzzles that DeSantis & Co. have placed over the mouths of scientists and researchers at the University of Florida, “opting to censor scientists and bury COVID-19 data rather than use that data to protect people.”
At UF, researchers told a Faculty Senate committee that they were pressured to destroy COVID-19 data, blocked from accessing state data and told not to say anything unsavory about the governor.
Omicron, meanwhile, is making inroads in Florida, on a collision course with Christmas and New Year’s. How much damage omicron will cause is not yet known. But holiday revelers — and everyone else — know the drill after almost two long years, with just moments of respite: Masks, vaccination, boosters, distancing.
When it comes to COVID-19, Fauci talks truth. Florida’s governor, however, talks politics — with hardly a word about the tragedy of more than 62,000 dead from the virus in his state.
