Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is back at it again with his biting criticisms of the Washington establishment.
During an event in Seminole County, Florida, on Wednesday, DeSantis shared a particularly harsh admonishment, even for him, directed squarely at the director of the National Institue of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac,” DeSantis said to the applause of those present.
DeSantis on Fauci: “I’m just sick of seeing him. I know he says he’s gonna retire. Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac!”pic.twitter.com/LeCPGVsyzK
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) August 24, 2022
The Seminole County event was part of “The Keep Florida Free tour” and included DeSantis, Senator Marc Rubio and other Republican candidates running in Florida, according to WESH.
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“You have people like Fauci saying that his lockdowns didn’t cause any permanent damage to any young kids,” DeSantis said.
“I got news for you, it did.”
“And I’m just sick of seeing him. I know he says he’s going to retire, someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.”
On Monday, Fauci announced he would be stepping down from his role as director of NIAID in December.
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DeSantis went on to make one point clear for those present at the rally: In his view, if Floridians had been forced to abide by the Fauci-led federal COVID mandates, the past few years would have been devastating.
“If it was up to him, your kids would not have been able to go to school in 2020, some of you would have lost your business or your jobs and so we made sure to choose freedom over Fauci-ism,” DeSantis said.
“We were not going to let this state descend into some type of Faucian dystopia, not on my watch. That was not going to happen.”
There is plenty of evidence to suggest the government-led economic lockdowns during the COVID pandemic created a number of issues.
For example, an analysis of 24 studies suggested “lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality.”
“We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality,” the researchers involved in the analysis wrote.
The paper also detailed the potentially “devastating” effects lockdowns had on the economy.
“They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence and undermining liberal democracy,” the researchers noted.
“These costs to society must be compared to the benefits of lockdowns, which our meta-analysis has shown are marginal at best. Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: Lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument.”
