DeSantis Cites ‘Johns Hopkins Study’ to Claim CNN and NY Times ‘Spewed Misinformation’ on Covid-19: ‘Lockdowns Didn’t Work’

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) spoke to Fox News digital in an extensive interview, published Tuesday, in which the GOP stalwart defended comedian Joe Rogan and accused some in the media of “spewing misinformation” related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential contender, was asked by Fox to weigh in on CNN media reporter Brian Selter’s recent comment warning Americans against trusting podcasters like Rogan “who just wing it” over actual newsrooms.

“Well, I think when people are going to look back at this, they’re going to look at outlets like CNN, New York Times as having spewed misinformation they claim to be policing it,” said DeSantis.

The governor’s comments appeared crafted to try to turn the tables on the accusations against Rogan – who has cast doubt on vaccines and hyped alternative treatments to Covid-19.

“But if you look from the beginning, who was advocating for lockdowns? CNN and New York Times,” DeSantis continued. “Who is advocating for school closures? Those outlets. Who has advocated for force masking of kids? Those outlets.”

“And then what ends up happening? Johns Hopkins does the study. Lockdowns didn’t work,” he added, citing a non-peer-reviewed working paper published last week by a professor at Johns Hopkins that found Spring 2020 lockdowns only lowered the Covid-19 mortality rate by 0.2% in the U.S. and Europe. The study was based on the research of three economists and is not related to Johns Hopkins’s other work on Covid-19.

“You look to see masked jurisdictions do no better than unmasked jurisdictions,” DeSantis concluded, hyping his own record as a governor who only enforced strict public safety measures in Florida at the beginning of the pandemic.

“All the things they’ve said. It seems like you wait six, 12 months and then basically the narratives blow up. Now they will never go back and admit they were wrong. They will never go back and do a mea culpa. It’ll just move on to the next thing and craft the next narrative,” DeSantis concluded.

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