Leer en Español
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that “vaccine passports” will not be required in the state, while the rest of the country and the federal government are still contemplating the idea of a new document certifying an individual’s vaccination.
“Under no circumstances will the state require people to have proof of vaccination,” he said at a press conference. “And I don’t think private companies should do it,” he added.
DeSantis is far from the notion of constantly presenting a negative test or a vaccine test. For him, all it takes is one decision. “If you want to go to an event, go to an event,” he said. “If you don’t want to, don’t go.”
Requiring people to provide all this evidence,” he asserted, “is not the way society gets back to normal, which is why we are rejecting any vaccine passport here in the state of Florida.
“I particularly think it’s a bad idea,” DeSantis said. He added that he considers it a problem to go down the road of vaccine passports. “Requiring the population to be tested will not bring them back to normality,” he said.
The highest authority in Florida acknowledged the effectiveness of the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, pointing out that it has been the most demanded. However, the production and shipment are not covering the requests; for reasons of accelerating the vaccination, DeSantis also recommended receiving the Pfizer or Moderna to achieve a high percentage of people vaccinated as soon as possible.
DeSantis revealed to the press that the governor’s office has made the vaccination process more flexible for people 60 and older, reaching a large number of more than 350,000 citizens between the ages of 60 and 64. When approximately 600 to 700,000 vaccinated citizens are reached, the demand will drop, according to the Floridian leader, who added that once that goal is reached, vaccination can then be made more flexible – probably for people 55 years of age and older.
The positive news for Floridians is that, according to DeSantis, this announcement will likely be made this March.
For Bay County, 60 % of the most advanced in age have been vaccinated; in the same county, 25 % of people between 60 and 64 years of age have been vaccinated.
The vaccine supply, DeSantis informed, has increased in different locations reaching double their capacity, which will accelerate vaccination and facilitate reaching percentages beyond 50%.
The governor also congratulated and recognized the freedom that Bay County has maintained in northeast Florida, where other Floridians have migrated from other states that have been suffering lockdowns.
Rafael Valera, Venezuelan, student of Political Science, political exile in São Paulo, Brazil since 2017 // Rafael Valera, venezolano, es estudiante de Ciencias Políticas y exiliado político en São Paulo, Brasil desde 2017