The Washington Post Invents a Vaccine Claim Ron DeSantis Didn’t Make – Opinion

Ron DeSantis doesn’t like the media. That’s been clear for a long time. But while every politician has controversial things they have said that should be questioned, including DeSantis, to take a statement and just invent a claim or implication where there isn’t one is just more proof that we don’t have an unbiased media in this country.

Via Washington Post:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a foe of vaccine mandates, appeared to suggest Thursday that getting a shot to protect against the coronavirus could cause infertility.

“Think about how ridiculous it is what they’re doing by trying to force the nurses” to get immunized, he said in a speech announcing funding for nursing certification programs. “A lot of these nurses have had covid. They are often younger. Some of them are trying to have families.”

DeSantis doesn’t mention anywhere in his quote how the COVID-19 vaccine could affect fertility.

DeSantis gave the speech at an event that saw him announce $2.3 million to support vocational and nursing education programs. It was focused on the shortage of critical medical workers not only in Florida, but all across the nation. DeSantis announced $2.3 million for nursing and vocational programs at an event. The speech focused on the critical shortage of medical workers not only in Florida, but across the country. PostMSNBC and others are removing a crucial phrase from DeSantis’ quote. You can find the context that you are looking for at a local Florida outlet.

“Think about how ridiculous it is what they’re doing by trying to force the nurses with these vaxes you know a lot of these nurses have had COVID, a lot of them are younger, some of them, they’re trying to have families, there’s a whole bunch of things that they have going on and so they don’t want to be forced to do it,” DeSantis said. “You see the shortages in there anyways, and now that is adding to it.”

In one sentence, it’s clear that DeSantis is talking about how vaccine mandates will only make a shortage of nurses worse. Young nurses who are wanting to get married and start families are getting let go because they aren’t getting vaccinated. It’s a controversial policy because on one hand, potentially spreading the virus from staff to patients is a medical and legal nightmare, but on the other hand, you’re looking at a shortage of nurses because of the virus and other circumstances already and letting more go only hurts the quality of care you can give.

DeSantis is looking at the mathematical equation here and deciding that it’s silly to look at a health care worker shortage and think “We need more barriers to work,” which is not an unreasonable conclusion to draw.

But the media looks at the DeSantis quote, cuts off a sentence, and declares he is spreading some conspiracy theory because he’s a successful Republican governor and he’s speculated to be a frontrunner in 2024. He has dismissed the media on multiple occasions as the hacks they are, and they don’t like being undermined.

If you wanted to “analyze” the quote, you could more effectively do so from the perspective that risking nurses spreading the virus is more damaging than a shortage of workers. But to straight-up take him out of context and invent a claim he didn’t make and run a story on that thinking “Got ‘im!” is just irresponsible journalism.

We shouldn’t expect responsible journalism now. It’s pretty clear the media can’t or won’t be objective where a Republican is concerned. At this point, I suppose DeSantis is lucky they didn’t try to find some hospital board members that had donated to him and tried to make this a pay-for-play scandal (again). Pretty depressing that there’s a greater-than-zero chance of that happening, but that’s showbiz, folks.