Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket through Getty Images
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week asked if people ever acquired examined for sickness prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
His feedback sparked confusion on-line, with many mentioning widespread preventative screenings for ailments like most cancers.
DeSantis not too long ago confronted criticism for permitting round a million COVID-19 assessments to expire in a warehouse.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday raised eyebrows when at a press convention he asked whether or not people acquired screened for sickness prior to the COVID-19 pandemic throughout a speech the place he railed in opposition to testing for the coronavirus.
“Now think about it,” DeSantis mentioned Friday. “Before COVID did anyone go out and seek testing to determine if they were sick? It’s usually you feel like you’re sick and you get tested to determine what you maybe have come down with.”
A clip of DeSantis’ remarks shared to Twitter elicited quite a few responses that identified preventive screenings for quite a few ailments, together with sexually transmitted infections and types of most cancers, are widespread even in people who wouldn’t have any signs of the illness.
Others additionally pointed towards a December 2021 tweet from DeSantis’ spouse, Casey DeSantis, the place she advocated for preventative most cancers testing and talked about her personal breast most cancers analysis.
California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu wrote in response to the Florida governor: “Think about it. Before polio, did anyone go out and seek the polio vaccine? Before cancer, did anyone go out and seek mammograms, colonoscopies or pap smears? Before fire, did anyone go out and seek to boil water? New discoveries cause behavior change.”
A consultant for DeSantis advised Inisder DeSantis stood by the remarks.
“He was very clear, and there is no need to clarify his remarks further,” she mentioned. “Never before in history have we seen mass testing of asymptomatic people for a respiratory virus.
“The comparability of mass every day/weekly COVID testing and annual most cancers screening is absurd, and it’s sickening that the media and Democrats try to use the First Lady’s most cancers analysis to rating low cost political factors. Try to do higher,” she added.
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Public-health experts have said that regular COVID-19 testing helps stem the spread of COVID-19 by allowing individuals with asymptomatic infections to isolate to prevent spreading the disease to people who face severe complications if infected. However, rapid tests have been in short supply. Health officials have recommended people with symptoms assume they have COVID-19 and isolate for at least five days.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s administration, which mandates businesses with more than 100 employees allows employers to do weekly testing of individuals who are not vaccinated against COVID-19, recently purchased 500 million at-home tests for Americans to order online for free. Experts have said the best time to take a rapid test is right before you see vulnerable people or a large group, but in situations where tests are very limited, some disease experts recommended people wait until they develop symptoms before getting tested for COVID-19.
“So, that is sort of a brand new factor the place they’ve been saying exit and take a look at all the time,” Gov. DeSantis said. “Again, you are free to do it, however what the DOH steerage from Florida is saying is that is unlikely to lead very a lot scientific worth for you, and it additionally creates a variety of second-order observe up issues.”
DeSantis, a Trump-aligned Republican who throughout the pandemic has been at the forefront of criticism around efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19, called widespread testing “primarily a lockdown by stealth” because a person would need to isolate even if they weren’t showing symptoms of illness.
“What occurs is blanket testing of wholesome people leads to some youngsters not being in class, it leads to people not having the ability to go to work, and doing a few of these isolation which can not even be justified, he mentioned. “To force healthy people like business to do that or whatever, we don’t advise that at all. We think that’s a mistake.”
DeSantis’ administration has additionally recieved latest criticism after it admitted it allowed between 800,000 to a million COVID-19 assessments to expire in a warehouse. Kevin Guthrie, the director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, mentioned there hadn’t been sufficient demand for them.
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