Politicians Playing Musical Masks in Florida

The jury is still out for some on whether to continue to wear masks as a result of the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus, regardless of whether you are indoors or outdoors. We know Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t wear a mask, but what about Rep. Charlie Crist and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the two Democrats vying to replace DeSantis in the 2022 gubernatorial election?

In a span of a week, we took a look at the social media account of both Fried and Crist and found that mask-wearing depended on which day of the week it was.

Rep. Crist, arguably the best retail politician in Florida history, can be seen maskless embracing constituents in outdoor pictures while doing the same wearing a mask in others outdoor images.

The same goes for images Crist has taken indoors. Crist can also be seen posing maskless for pictures in a closed setting and then wearing one in almost the exact same setting just days later.

Commissioner Fried, who asks that Floridians wear masks indoors, has, for the most part, followed her own lead on the issue, but has sent mixed messages by when just last week she wore a  mask during her now-daily COVID update addresses, and then the very next day appeared maskless at her COVID update.

Since August 5^th, Fried has not worn a mask during her briefings.

Florida is seeing a surge in COVID cases and more and more Democratic lawmakers like State Senator Shevrin Jones are starting to call for a statewide mask mandate to be put in place. DeSantis has said that he would not impose any more COVID restrictions such as lockdowns and mask mandates, but both Crist and Fried have stayed quiet on whether they support mandates of any kind.

Meanwhile, school boards across the state are pushing back against DeSantis’s anti-mask executive order he signed. Democrats contend that masks in schools will prevent children from contracting the disease and want to mandate mask-wearing, DeSantis says he wants to leave it to the parents to decide.

DeSantis recently said that the RSV virus posed a greater risk to children.