DeSantis spox responds to report Biden considering domestic travel restrictions that could hit Florida

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President Joe Biden, who last year screamed “xenophobia” when then-President Donald Trump instituted travel restrictions on China, is now reportedly considering instituting travel restrictions on certain American states, potentially including Florida.

Discussions over potential domestic travel restrictions are being motivated by the preponderance of B.1.1.7, a coronavirus variant that’s been surging in California and Florida, though for some reason the focus appears to be on Florida.

The Biden administration is reportedly “considering whether to impose domestic travel restrictions, including on Florida, fearful that coronavirus mutations are threatening to reverse hard-fought progress on the pandemic,” the Miami Herald reported Wednesday.

“Outbreaks of the new variants — including a highly contagious one first identified in the United Kingdom, as well as others from South Africa and Brazil that scientists worry can evade existing vaccines — have lent urgency to a review of potential travel restrictions within the United States,” the outlet reported.

In a statement, a White House official spoke of the need to “mitigate the spread here” with the same strategies used “with South Africa” and “with Brazil.”

“There are active conversations about what could help mitigate spread here, but we have to follow the data and what’s going to work. We did this with South Africa, we did this with Brazil, because we got clear guidance. But we’re having conversations about anything that would help mitigate spread,” the official reportedly said.

The Miami Herald noted in its report that two federal government officials “underscored that no policy announcements are imminent” and any decisions on travel restrictions would be made in “partnership with state and local governments.”

“No decisions have been made, but we certainly are having conversations across government,” the White House official said. “This is a war and we’re at battle with the virus. War is messy and unpredictable, and all options are on the table.”

News of a potential travel ban on Florida did not sit well with either Gov. Ron DeSantis or Sen. Marco Rubio, both Republicans, though the Miami Herald noted in its report that the “White House has not said that it is considering a Florida travel ban.”

Meredith Beatrice, a spokesperson for the governor, told the outlet that he “opposes travel restrictions and does not believe diagnostic tests should be a prerequisite to domestic air travel.”

The Biden administration has for several weeks now been mulling making coronavirus tests mandatory for all domestic flights.

Rubio, meanwhile, wrote a stern letter to Biden himself Wednesday blasting the proposed domestic travel restrictions as “an outrageous, authoritarian move that has no basis in law or science.”

“Instead, it would only serve to inflict severe and devastating economic pain on an already damaged economy. While we are all concerned that the pandemic continues to take a toll on our friends, family and communities, forbidding Americans from traveling across state lines will not force any strain of COVID-19 to cease,” the letter reads.

“It would instead starve Florida’s businesses of much needed tourism dollars, keep family and friends apart, and set an unprecedented use of power on the American people,” he added.

Flights to Florida have spiked “in recent weeks as signs have emerged that the market for leisure travel is rebounding,” according to the Miami Herald.

“Instead of dictating where Americans can, or cannot travel, your administration should instead focus on increasing supply and availability of vaccines, especially to Florida, the third most populous state and a winter retreat,” Rubio’s letter continued.

View the letter below or access it directly here:

Marco Rubio Letter to Joe Biden Domestic Travel Florida by V Saxena on Scribd

“I have already requested an increase of vaccines be allocated because of the numerous non-Floridians seeking inoculations. If you are concerned about the coronavirus spread in Florida, I urge you to fast track additional vaccines to the state instead of attempting to cripple our economy,” he wrote.

DeSantis has also been calling for more vaccines, but to no avail, with the Biden administration choosing instead to talk mindless trash.

Late last month, for instance, White House press secretary Jen Psaki slammed Florida for “only” distributing “about 50 percent of the vaccines that they have been given.” This prompted DeSantis to fact-check her.

“The insinuation that Florida is underutilizing vaccines is totally disingenuous. Florida is number one in the country among the top 10 most populous states for vaccine doses per capita. Additionally, Florida is averaging more than 300,000 first doses per week but we are not going to divert second doses away from our seniors,” he said at the time.

After receiving the first dose of the vaccine, patients must wait a few weeks before receiving the second dose. So if Florida or any other state gives the first dose to 1,000 people, as an example, it must pre-allocate an additional 1,000 for the second dose.

“We are committed to ensuring our seniors are the priority and get their second dose, and if the White House is suggesting that we shouldn’t be doing that, I don’t think that’s a good suggestion. If the implication is that we should be giving those second doses away to other people, that is not the way the FDA had prescribed the series,” DeSantis continued.

“We are also number one in the nation by far for vaccinations of seniors, as Florida has vaccinated more than 1 million seniors 65 and older to date. If we are given additional first doses, we are ready to double our output. The possibilities are endless here in Florida, but it is contingent on us getting additional supply from the government,” he said.

His point was that for Florida to administer more first doses, which is what Psaki seemed to advocate, it needed to receive more vaccines from the government. Otherwise, it would risk eating into its pre-allocated second doses.

Dovetailing back to the present, not only is the Biden administration allegedly failing to supply Florida with enough vaccines, but could now be considering a potential travel ban on the red state, and all as it pursues an open borders policy toward illegal aliens and boosts refugee admissions.

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