MIXED MESSAGES

Gov. Ron DeSantis Does U-Turn, Declares Planes Safe From COVID-19

In March, he warned of “super spreaders” bringing in germs. Now he says flying is “safe for people to do.”

Back in the spring, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said planes could be petri dishes for the coronavirus—but now he says air travel is perfectly safe. “The airplanes have just not been vectors when you see spread of the coronavirus,” he said Friday, according to the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. “The evidence is the evidence. It’s safe for people to do.” That’s quite a change of tune from March, when DeSantis expressed concern about planes traveling to his state from New York. “You’ll have folks here say, you know, you can’t go to a state park because you may transmit COVID-19, but you can have some super spreader on one of these planes sneezing and coughing for two hours and then just get off and that’s fine,” DeSantis said. “What about the other passengers? It’s just absolutely ridiculous that that would be going on.” The other thing that’s changed from March: Air travel to Florida is down by two-thirds.