DeSantis on Florida Potentially Ditching OSHA: ‘They Don’t Recognize Core Scientific Facts’

The Florida legislature is looking at ditching the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the special session, as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said the federal agency has demonstrated that it does not “recognize core scientific facts,” such as the reality of natural immunity.

“Well first of all, I think there are two different issues,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Naples on Tuesday after being asked about the legislature coming close to solidifying a bill to replace OSHA in Florida, placing employer regulations under the control of the state.

“There’s a lot of states that don’t do OSHA. … and I think it’s an appropriate response given how heavy-handed OSHA’s being,” DeSantis said.

“These agencies, when they’re doing things, you expect that this is being done in some factual basis. But if you read that OSHA rule, it’s ignorance running amok. They don’t recognize core scientific facts like immunity conferred through prior infection,” he explained.

“They explicitly say that somebody that’s recovered from COVID does not have protection when we know that’s not true,” DeSantis continued, pointing to studies, including Israel’s “exhaustive” study, “showing that those folks do indeed have protection.”

He continued:

So if you were concerned about workplace safety, you would acknowledge that and not try to have someone fired from their job over these shots. But at the end of the day, when an agency comes in and is threatening to kick people out of work, in the midst of an economy that needs more people in these key industries — mind you, because the fallout from COVID, even though Florida, were back to pre-COVID unemployment policies … and there’s hundreds of thousands of jobs available in Florida — even though we’re there, and yes we’ve done better than some other states that have different policies, but you know, you still don’t have everyone back in like we would want.

“They’re threatening to basically cause truckers to be fired, other people in logistics and operations that are so key to the supply chain. Why you would do that?” he asked. “I don’t know.”

“But I think that rule is 500 pages of a bureaucracy run amok. If that’s the case, the legislature wants us to go in a different direction, you know, I think that’s an appropriate response,” he added.