DeSantis Team Hits Back After Biden Deems Vaccination a ‘Vital Part’ of Hurricane Prep

Ron DeSantis and Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
Chris O'Meara/AP

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) team on social media assured the Sunshine State that its officials are ready and willing to help all Floridians who will be impacted by Hurricane Ian, regardless of vaccination status, after President Biden deemed getting vaccinated a “vital part” of hurricane prep.

“Let me be clear. If you’re in a state where hurricanes often strike like Florida or the Gulf Coast or into Texas, a vital part of preparing for hurricane season is to get vaccinated,” Biden stated ahead of Hurricane Ian’s anticipated landfall on the west coast of Florida.

“Now, everything is more complicated if you’re not vaccinated in [sic] a hurricane or natural disaster hits,” he continued, making a bizarre connection between getting vaccinated and preparing for a massive storm:

The DeSantis War Room addressed Biden’s call for more vaccinations on Tuesday.

This is a strange and puzzling assertion from @POTUS. Governor DeSantis and Florida’s world class emergency management & first responders are ready to help all Floridians impacted by #HurricaneIan, regardless of vaccination status,” it said:

It remains utterly unclear what getting vaccinated for the Chinese coronavirus — which Americans have had ample opportunity to do — has to do with preparing for a massive storm, which is expected to bring catastrophic flooding, “life-threatening storm surge,” and mass power outages across the state. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has held several press conferences on the storm, has made no mention of vaccines, as it has nothing to do with preparing for a massive hurricane.

Breitbart News reported:

“There’s still uncertainty with where that exact landfall will be, but just understand the impacts are gonna be far, far broader than just where the eye of the storm happens to make landfall,” he said, warning of “catastrophic flooding and life threatening storm surge.” He also noted that some have made comparisons to Hurricane Charley, which hit the state in 2004. However, while that hurricane was “powerful as a category four,” DeSantis explained that it was smaller and most of the damage was caused by wind. With this storm, Hurricane Ian, historic storm surge and flooding are the biggest concerns.

According to the NHC’s latest update at the time of this writing, Hurricane Ian has maximum sustained winds of 120 mph. Much of the state is now under a Tropical Storm Watch, Tropical Storm Warning, Hurricane Watch, and Hurricane Warning.

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