Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ representatives shared that the chief executive of a state with nearly 34,000 COVID-19 deaths has taken the step of getting vaccinated.
DeSantis did so without ceremony, with his office confirming that he had received the single-dose Johnson + Johnson vaccine last week. DeSantis’ response to the coronavirus pandemic has been colored by a particularly Republican bent of wanting to protect employers and get Florida’s low-wage service workers back into their pandemic-disrupted jobs. Florida’s rate of deaths per 100,000 people is firmly in the middle of the CDC’s state-by-state rankings (claims of potential data suppression aside).
For his part, DeSantis appeared to wait until the statewide regulations included his age group. The restrictions in the state eased to include anyone over 40 at the end of March and opened up to all adults on April 5.
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This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2021.