The White House criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday for resisting guidance policies from the Centers for Disease Control forcing even vaccinated Americans and children to wear masks again.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki specifically called out the state of Florida for contributing to the high rate of coronavirus cases nationwide.
“So, you know, at a certain point, leaders are going to have to choose whether they’re going to follow public health guidelines or they’re going to follow politics,” she said.
Psaki said that elected officials should take more steps to protect their citizens and enact mask mandates, including “allowing schools to mandate masks” which she noted disapprovingly “is not the current state of play in Florida.”
DeSantis has refused to enact mask mandates for children in schools, arguing that the science shows that children are not in danger from the virus.
“I think if the CDC had its way, I think they probably would have kids in masks indefinitely,” he said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday.
The DeSantis team has argued the CDC’s new masking requirements could backfire.
“Mandating masks for vaccinated people erodes public trust and confidence in the effectiveness of the vaccines,” DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw told Breitbart News last week.
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