Miami doctor to Gov. Desantis: Three things you need to do now to help us fight COVID | Opinion

As a doctor and a physician in Miami, I’m distressed to see hospitals in Florida are starting to fill up with COVID-19 cases, again. One in Jacksonville reported the most COVID-19 patients ever, and more children are being hospitalized. So far, nearly 39,000 Floridians have died in 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet Gov. Ron DeSantis is throwing a ticker tape parade for himself while COVID-19 cases are spiking, again.

Specifically, DeSantis has declared victory against a deadly pathogen at least three times: In May 2020, when he bucked masks and social distancing as a winning strategy; again in March 2021, when he hailed his fact-free, unscientific response as superior to ones based on facts and science, and now, when he’s selling merchandise poking fun at medical and public health experts for spending the past year telling people to take COVID-19 seriously.

DeSantis needs to stop patting himself on the back and tell every Floridian to get real about COVID-19. Until he does that, he’s making my job as a physician more difficult.

Reopened Florida too soon

DeSantis’ self-serving spin doesn’t hide the fact that he has bungled the COVID-19 response from Day One, when he snubbed scientific advice to wear masks and socially distance. Since then, he has made things worse by pretending COVID-19 didn’t exist and reopening Florida prematurely. Tellingly, each time DeSantis took a bow for kicking COVID-19 in the teeth, cases in Florida spiked, more people got sick and more people died.

As a physician who has been on the frontlines of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, I urge DeSantis to focus on three things that can bring cases down week over week in a sustained manner, protect people and save lives, and ultimately help Florida truly turn the corner in this pandemic.

One: Denounce disinformation and tell the truth. DeSantis should denounce fringe ideas like the one he entertained at his roundtable in March with disgraced Trump administration COVID-19 czar Scott Atlas. Instead of hosting them, DeSantis should push back against individuals who endorse the idea that people should be infected naturally with COVID-19 to achieve community immunity, without acknowledging that natural infections to a disease that’s far deadlier than the flu would result in millions of deaths which could be avoided with vaccinations.

DeSantis’ friends also dismissed the need for children to wear masks, even though public health experts encourage the opposite and recommend kids wear masks whenever they’re around unvaccinated people. DeSantis’ embrace of flat-out disinformation was so egregious, YouTube had to remove the video for, in a nutshell, peddling lies. DeSantis must not just break from radical naysayers like Atlas, but push back.

Masks and vaccines work

Two: Get real about masks and vaccines. Masks are demonstrably effective at preventing people from spreading and getting COVID-19. Vaccines are demonstrably effective at protecting people from getting infected with COVID-19. The science behind these two facts is real and quantifiable, and DeSantis should spend every waking moment of his governorship making sure every Floridian hears them.

When he’s ensured that every Floridian has been communicated to and informed about the science, effectiveness and safety of masks and vaccines, he should do it again. In small neighborhoods, in multiple languages, from Calle Ocho to Overtown, DeSantis should flood every demographic in Florida with factual information about masks and vaccines.

Yet DeSantis belittles scientists and health experts. He divides Floridians over masks. Florida’s vaccination rate is below the national average.

DeSantis must hit the road and tell Floridians to take COVID-19 seriously. If Fox News’ Sean Hannity can do a U-turn after more than a year of COVID-19 denialism and now use his massive platform to beg his viewers to get real about COVID because “enough people have died,” DeSantis can mobilize the powerful machinery of the governor’s office to encourage Floridians to wear a mask, socially distance and get vaccinated.

Vaccines for cruises

And third: Do no harm. As a physician, I took the oath to protect people by not causing injury. DeSantis should do the same. He can start by supporting businesses that want to reduce infections and protect people, something a company like Norwegian Cruise Lines hopes to do by requiring people on board to show they’ve been vaccinated. Instead, DeSantis is continuing his lawsuit against Norwegian Cruise Lines. At the same time he’s still banning Florida businesses, local communities and other places from doing what they need to do to keep their employees, customers, constituents, students, teachers and staff safer and more protected against COVID-19, such as wearing a mask and showing they’ve been vaccinated.

Floridians can choose to wear a mask or get vaccinated. They should, to protect themselves and their loved ones. What DeSantis should not be allowed to do is force Floridians to be exposed to people who could sicken and potentially kill them. Even Fox News’ parent company gets this concept.

The hospital where I work is filling up, again. My community is getting sick, again. And I’m asking DeSantis, again: Help us save lives, and get real about COVID-19.

Bernard Ashby is a cardiologist in Miami and Florida state lead for the Committee to Protect Health Care.