As we exit from the COVID-19 pandemic, reopening the country continues to be a controversial topic for many industries, including cruise liners. However, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is staying firm with his blaming of the CDC for stalling the cruise industry.
When asked by a reporter today at a press conference in Miami what he had to say to the cruise industry Gov. DeSantis responded, saying "Who's the one suing the CDC to open the ports? I've been fighting for this for nine months."
"They can do it under current Florida law, they are absolutely able to do it, they all have operations to be able to handle it," added DeSantis
DeSantis, who previously filed a lawsuit against the CDC to allow the cruise industry to begin operating again, has been very vocal about the restrictive guidelines set by the government agency.
"I can tell you I've spoken with all the major executives of major cruise lines they're ready to go," continued DeSantis. "The problem with this is the CDC they've mothballed this industry for over a year, and then we were in mediation with them, they were very unreasonable with some of the things they were asking about to insist upon and so they can sail in Florida, I wanted them to sail nine months ago and the idea is that people do."
DeSantis also commented on the possibility of required vaccines to ride on cruises.
"Here also the thing if you talk to them, this whole vaccination issue is somewhat of a red herring because in their research over 90% of the people who want a cruise have already been vaccinated at this point. So that's going to end up taking care of itself, you don't need to discriminate against people and you shouldn't," said DeSantis, adding that "The CDC actually says they count the kids people can't bring their families on these cruises? What we're doing in court, we think we're going to get a favorable ruling in district court, that will open up the ability for sure for these ships to be able to sail. But make no mistake about this, had we not done what we did, and I think a lot of those cruise lines will admit this, you would not be talking about sailing right now.""
DeSantis went on, further assigned blame to the CDC, which some Americans believe are overreacting at this point in the pandemic.
"The CDC was not budging they were not responsive. We got to the point where we said we wanted to do it. I did the event at the port a few months ago, you had all these folks that wanted to get back to work. If we win this case that's in Tampa now, it is going to be open, they're going to be able to do it, they're going to be able to handle it. Every one of them I've talked to has the ability to operate, it's simply the CDC and what they're doing and some of it is really really ridiculous. Say you have to wear a mask when you're sunbathing, some of this stuff they've actually put out there."
DeSantis's fiery interaction continued, furthering the conversation on the hypocrisy around COVID-19 by calling out the leading Dr. Anthony Fauci.
"Even though you have Fauci and his emails admitting masks don't even stop COVID even though he's getting all the kids to be masked all this time, so we're going to be sailing, hopefully very soon... But there has not been a single elected official in this country who has done more to liberate the cruise lines from a bureaucracy that is totally out of touch, and that is quite frankly is exercising an authority that they do not possess under the law."
