As President Joe Biden (D) is expected to issue a vaccination mandate for federal employees and contractors, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) is shifting his focus to Dr. Fauci, criticizing him and the effects of last year’s lockdown. In a press release from Friends of Ron DeSantis, the Sunshine State Governor lists “the devastating consequences of Fauci’s lockdown policies,” warning that “Fauci needs to be fired.”
In the release, DeSantis argues that “Fauci’s lockdown policies” have only contributed to “jobs lost, businesses shuttered, schools closed and lives destroyed.” With the rise of COVID-19 variants spreading in states such as Florida, Americans are now experiencing new restrictions involving masks, a stronger push for vaccinations and the looming concern of whether or not there will be another lockdown.
The Governor alleges that “the most likely explanation for the start of the pandemic is that the COVID-19 virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China. This has been a contentious topic of discussion among GOP members, and DeSantis further expresses “that Fauci and his bureaucratic brethren may have been involved in funding the Wuhan lab’s work to experiment on viruses in ways that made them more deadly to human beings.”
In terms of holding “Fauci accountable,” DeSantis praised Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R), calling him “one of the rare” lawmakers “who actually holds Fauci accountable.” Paul is alleged to have exposed “Fauci for his false statements about the funding of the Wuhan lab.” In turn, Fauci is alleged to have gotten “agitated because he doesn’t want us to know his role in funding reckless, ethically dubious research that may have precipitated a global pandemic.”
Ultimately, DeSantis, who’s up for reelection in 2022, argued that “Fauci needs to be fired and an investigation into his role in funding the Wuhan lab must be launched immediately” before calling “the corporate media… Fauci’s Praetorian Guard.”
