Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Monday teased a permanent ban on coronavirus mandates — including vaccinations and masking — which he said the legislature will address in the upcoming legislative session.
Speaking during a press conference focusing on ending Disney’s self-governing status, DeSantis brought up the way the organization handled the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, including forcing young children to wear masks.
“And then as we got into 2021, you know, a lot of these Disney employees would come — they’d just see me at like Wawa or something and say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna lose my job at Disney because of the vax … mandates for COVID,’ and you know, that was not something that we thought was acceptable in the state of Florida,” he said, noting that they called a special session of the legislature and to provide legislation to “say you can’t lose your job based on not taking the shot,” he said to applause.
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“And we did that not just for Disney but for everybody” including children and law enforcement, he said. However, DeSantis said while they were able to save jobs, many unvaccinated employees were still treated differently.
“They would treat them differently if they didn’t do the shot — a shot that doesn’t prevent you from getting infected or spreading it anyways,” he noted.
“And yet they make them wear masks or do this or do that. And so one of the things we’re going to be doing in the upcoming legislative session is to protect people’s right,” he said, explaining that they will make the mandate bans “permanent” and go even further by protecting “your civil rights to be able to participate in society without having to wear a mask or having to do some of these things.”
“We’re going to work on strong, permanent protections for every Floridian job, citizen, [and] whatnot, but I do think this board will be able you know to provide protections for the patrons coming and for the employees as well as is necessary,” he said, speaking of the state-controlled board which will oversee the area.