Miami Herald Columnist Says Omicron Caused by ‘Selfish’ People like DeSantis

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The Omicron variant of Covid-19 came from “selfish” people like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), the Miami Herald advised in a Dec. 24 op-ed.
“DeSantis is still busy peddling treatment instead of prevention,” the Herald’s Fabiola Santiago lamented in a Christmas Eve tirade. “He’s still spreading lies on Fox News and any conservative right-wing program that will listen to him about Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top authority on infectious diseases.
“DeSantis won’t even tell the media if he got the booster shot,” Santiago argued. “And he probably will remain mum now that his mentor, former president Donald Trump, got booed recently at a Republican event when he said he got the booster shot. No, omicron won’t make a bit of difference in the attitudes of the Trump-DeSantis loving crowd The charlatan-worshiping crowd DeSantis favors loves to point at people who were vaccinated and still get the virus as proof of their debunked beliefs.”
DeSantis began winding down Covid-19 mandates in his state in late 2020, leading to economic growth and migration to his state. Florida gained more than 329,000 new residents between April 2020 and April 2021, according to the state’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research, while New York’s population fell by nearly the same number.
Covid-19 militants have nonetheless called for doubling down on restrictions related to the pandemic, including Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci said as recently as Sunday that he would support a federal mandate barring Americans from air travel unless they had been vaccinated against Covid-19. To date, vaccines invented by Pfizer and Moderna require a two-dose series, along with a third “booster” shot.
Santiago, who the Herald describes as an “award-winning columnist,” said Covid-19’s Omicron variant was “what happens when we act selfishly and reject that we’re interconnected with the rest of the world.”
“The ‘me, me, me’ attitude only heightens our vulnerability to disease,” Santiago added. “We all (except those with well-founded medical exceptions) need to vaccinate, not only for ourselves, but to do our part for the rest of humanity. Without host bodies, viruses can’t survive and mutate. Omicron is the last lesson of 2021. Heed it, and wear the holiday smile behind the mask, even if safety mandates aren’t a thing in DeSantis’ Florida. And don’t forget to celebrate. If you’re reading this, it’s because you’re still here.”