Biden, DeSantis feud over ventilator request. Here’s what we should know

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis makes it obvious he isn’t taking his marching orders from President Joe Biden with regards to how Florida will handle a surging quantity of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

Therefore it was possibly a little odd on August. 10 when reports stated that Florida was receiving 300 ventilators to assist in treating sick patients.

“I haven’t learned about that, so I must determine if that’s true or otherwise. I’d honestly doubt that that’s true, but I’ll look,” DeSantis told a reporter.

“We’ve a lot of things that people stockpiled within the this past year . 5 with the department of emergency management. I haven’t had any demands across my desk. I haven’t been notified of this.”

The following day, a reporter place the question to Biden press secretary Jen Psaki. Did the federal government send help Florida?

“Like a policy, we don’t send ventilators to states without their curiosity about receiving individuals ventilators,” Psaki stated.

That motivated an answer from DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw. 

“Exactly why is the Biden Admin attempting to make this right into a huge political issue? Nobody from @GovRonDeSantis office requested for ventilators. @HealthyFla did, and there is a standard / routine process, the Governor need not be looped in onto it.”

Let’s arrive at the bottom of the.

The ventilators

Based on the U.S. Department of Health insurance and Human Services, the Proper National Stockpile deployed 200 ventilators, 100 high-flow nasal cannula kits and related ancillary supplies to Florida now. 

Who made the request?

Based on the governor’s office, the request originated from the Florida Department of Health, which fits using the HHS to examine healthcare needs statewide. The condition Department of Health “routinely works together with the us government to make sure sufficient sources can be found and prepared,” the governor’s office states.

Did the governor know of the request?

We have no idea once the governor, or anybody within the executive office from the governor, discovered the request. 

However the Department of Health is definitely an executive agency in Florida, and also the governor ultimately oversees every aspect of the department. (Here’s the business chart.) DeSantis hired the present secretary from the Department of Health, Dr. Scott A. Rivkees, in April 2019. 

It’s an identical relationship to how Biden runs agencies around the federal level — whether it’s the Department of Homeland To safeguard problems with immigration, or even the Ecological Protection Agency for water and pollution rules, or even the Cdc and Prevention for that current eviction moratorium. 

What is the current lack of ventilators in Florida?

Not that we understand of. Justin Senior, Chief executive officer of Safety Internet Hospital Alliance of Florida, including 14 from the largest hospital systems in Florida, told our partners in the Tampa Bay Occasions he’s heard nothing in regards to a ventilator shortage.

Why this matters

Based on the CDC, typically 12,998 individuals have been hospitalized having a situation of COVID-19 from August. 3-9. That’s 70% greater compared to previous full of The month of january 2021.

Florida medical officials have stopped releasing daily information about the amount of new coronavirus cases, saying daily updates aren’t needed.

DeSantis claimed herpes is periodic. Scientists say new hospitalizations and deaths are overwhelmingly limited to those who have not been vaccinated.

Based on the New You are able to Occasions, fully vaccinated individuals have composed as couple of as .1% of and as much as 5% of individuals hospitalized using the virus in overview of data from 40 states and Washington, D.C., so that as couple of as .2% and as much as 6% of individuals who’ve died.