Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis shared in a video released on Tuesday that his state’s surgeon general has put out new guidance for Florida workers to provide freedom from mask requirements.
“Simply relying on outdated CDC guidance when the experience has completely undercut that is not really a reasonable thing to do at this point,” DeSantis said in a Tuesday video on Twitter.
“A 9 to 5 job should not be a N-95 job,” the governor added.
Florida businesses need to stop relying on outdated CDC forced masking of worker requirements. @FLSurgeonGen Ladapo has put out new guidance for Florida workers liberating them from 8 hour forced mask workdays.
A 9 to 5 job should not be a N-95 job. pic.twitter.com/QeLo2hUfJk
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 2, 2022
DeSantis spoke specifically on behalf of workers in the service and hospitality industries.
“Every time I go to these places, I’ll be in these big events and you have all these people having such a good time and the poor servers are forced to mask and I will ask them, ‘Are you allowed to take the mask off?’ They say not yet,” he shared.
“They’re all waiting for it. They all want to be liberated. They want to be treated normally,” DeSantis added.
The video follows a press release last week from DeSantis and Florida’s Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo that announced significant changes to Florida’s COVID-19 guidance “including pushing back on unscientific corporate masking, reducing isolation for all Floridians including those in schools and daycares, and recommending that physicians should exercise their individual clinical judgment and expertise based on their patients’ needs and preferences.”
“People want to live freely in Florida, without corporate masking creating a two-tier society and without overbearing isolation for children,” DeSantis said in the statement. “We are empowering health care practitioners to follow science, not Fauci’s status quo.”
Ladapo also offered a statement regarding the new changes in his state.
“The State of Florida has widespread natural and vaccine-induced immunity,” Ladapo said. “Evidence suggests that most secondary transmission occurs early on. Our state will continue to make decisions for Floridians rooted in sound science, not fear, whether they are working or in school.”
Among the updates in Florida includes ending mask-wearing requirements in most workplaces.
“This guidance makes clear that all employees at a corporation should not be forced to wear a mask while at work. The guidance recognizes that there are millions of employees in Florida working in industries from hospitality to manufacturing to banking who for no reason whatsoever have been forced to wear a mask at work,” the statement said.
In addition, childcare centers and schools are now only required to isolate students for five days for those who test positive for COVID-19. The same guidelines will apply to state workers.
DeSantis also emphasized freedom from COVID-19 mandates during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in Orlando on Thursday. The Daily Wire reported:
“Woke is the new religion of the left,” DeSantis said, mirroring this year’s CPAC slogan, “Awoke, Not Woke.” He also called the woke movement a “form of Marxism.”
“Freedom has prevailed in the Sunshine State,” he said to cheers.
While many stood through his 20-minute speech, others jumped to their feet when he delivered lines like, “criminals will see the inside of a jail cell,” labeled the Biden White House “the Brandon administration” and declared “Florida has defeated Fauciism,” a reference to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has led the effort to lock down America and mandate masks in schools.