Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged people this week to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they have not done so already, saying that the vaccines are saving lives and have significantly lowered mortality rates and cases of serious illness.
“So, here’s I think the most important thing with the data,” DeSantis said. “If you are vaccinated, fully vaccinated, the chance of you getting seriously ill or dying from COVID is effectively zero. If you look at the people that are being admitted to hospitals, over 95% of them are either not fully vaccinated or not vaccinated at all.”
“And so these vaccines are saving lives, they are reducing mortality,” DeSantis continued. “Mortality in nursing homes since we rolled out the vaccines in December is down over 95% due to COVID. Mortality for elderly people since we rolled out the vaccines is down nearly 90%. And so we’re proud in Florida that we put seniors first on that because they were the most vulnerable. We have 85% of our seniors that are vaccinated and about 75% of folks over the age of 50. We have no mandate, we’ve provided information to people, and we’ve been very honest about any data that comes out.”
“I can tell you in Florida, your chance of surviving if your vaccine is close to 100%,” DeSantis added. “And so we worked very hard to get those vaccines into all our elderly communities and give it to other folks who who could use it.”
WATCH:
"These vacines are saving lives"
In his most direct effort to encourage people to get vaccinated, Governor Ron DeSantis said 95% of the new COVID cases are those who are not vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/3RzHYEH1mI
— Greg Angel (@NewsGuyGreg) July 21, 2021
TRANSCRIPT:
RON DESANTIS, GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA (R): So, here’s I think the most important thing with the data. If you are vaccinated, fully vaccinated, the chance of you getting seriously ill or dying from COVID is effectively zero. If you look at the people that are being admitted to hospitals, over 95% of them are either not fully vaccinated or not vaccinated at all. And so these vaccines are saving lives, they are reducing mortality. Mortality in nursing homes since we rolled out the vaccines in December is down over 95% due to COVID. Mortality for elderly people since we rolled out the vaccines is down nearly 90%. And so we’re proud in Florida that we put seniors first on that because they were the most vulnerable. We have 85% of our seniors that are vaccinated and about 75% of folks over the age of 50. We have no mandate, we’ve provided information to people, and we’ve been very honest about any data that comes out. And I can tell you that if you look, you are seeing people that are vaccinated, for whatever reason, some I think can test positive if you’re vaccinated, but they don’t get seriously ill, except maybe rare instances. There’s always one offs on stuff. I can tell you in Florida, your chance of surviving if you’re vaccinated is close to 100%. And so we worked very hard to get those vaccines into all our elderly communities and give it to other folks who who could use it. Obviously, when you talk about some of the younger folks, the uptake has been less. I think that the distribution was very effective that we did, and I think we had a lot of good uptake on the Johnson and Johnson in March and into April. We have saw a noticeable decline in J&J when they pulled it back because of the FDA. I think it was a huge mistake. I said so at the time. And I think that that sent a message that maybe this is not something that they should be doing. I think that’s been unfortunate because I took it, I think it’s effective.