Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke out about President Joe Biden's suggestion that COVID-19 restrictions could have to be reinstated, calling it "insane" and vowing to keep the state open.
"Biden last night said that they may have to impose more lockdown type policies in the future. I can tell you, that ain't happening in Florida. We are not going to let him lock down Florida," DeSantis said at a news conference Friday.
DeSantis spoke after Biden's Thursday night address to the nation marking one year since the coronavirus pandemic led to lockdowns.
"If we don’t stay vigilant and the conditions change, then we may have to reinstate restrictions to get back on track," Biden said. "And, please, we don’t want to do that again."
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DeSantis vowed that there would be no new lockdowns in Florida.
"To even contemplate doing any type of lockdown, honestly it's insane, and so that's not gonna happen in the state of Florida," DeSantis said. "We're gonna continue doing what works, but under no circumstances would we entertain anything of the sort."
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DeSantis said lockdowns in other states weren't effective, and said Florida keeping businesses and schools open have worked.
"We actually had to make tough decisions, we really followed the data and made the right decisions about keeping kids in school, keeping the economy going," DeSantis said. "We like the fact that people are able to work here, we like the fact that we've been able to save thousands, thousands of businesses and save peoples' livelihoods and we love the fact that parents have the right to send their kids to school in person."
The governor said that as more vaccines become available, the message should be to tell more people to get them.
"The message has got to be, 'you get your shot, you're not gonna have to be social distancing for the rest of your life.' There are some people who do not want this to stop, and I don't understand that," DeSantis said. "Remember they said it was 15 days to slow the spread and now we're on day 358 or something like that now."
