The Editorial Board of one of Florida’s top newspapers is criticizing Republican Governor Ron DeSantis as a “fraud” and a “phony” for his horrific handling of the Sunshine State’s COVID crisis, and then taking a “victory lap” for one week of improved results after “Florida’s summer of suffering.”

“Florida led the nation in case rates for much of the summer, and our governor was silent. Well, not totally silent. He did rail against mask and vaccine mandates, measures intended to prevent people from falling ill,” the Orlando Sentinel’s Editorial Board writes. “Now, a governor whose sole contribution to fighting the outbreak was to expand antibody treatments for people after they got infected is taking full credit for the decline in cases.”

“What a fraud. What a phony,” they declare, chastising the governor with White House wishes for having “the gall, the nerve, to take a victory lap.”

The paper notes that from July to October approximately 21,000 Floridians died from COVID. (The total number of Florida COVID deaths is 59,495.)

“Compare that to California, a warm-weather state with nearly twice the population of Florida and a governor who believes in public health. California had just 8,600 deaths during that same summer surge, according to Johns Hopkins,” they note.

DeSantis “could have made another major push for Floridians to get vaccinated. But he didn’t, possibly because his Republican Party is rapidly aligning itself with the anti-vaxxer movement,” the writer, adding that he chose “to make masks a cultural wedge issue” by banning any local mandates.

“And now, the do-nothing governor is trying to claim credit for this surge coming to an end,” the editors lament. “It is DeSantis’ final and most essential command — to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. How Orwellian.”

Newly released emails show that Trump administration officials openly celebrated after they successfully meddled to get the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to downplay the risks of the novel coronavirus.

The Washington Post reports that former Trump science adviser Paul Alexander wrote an email to then-HHS public affairs chief Michael Caputo in which he boasted about getting the CDC to back off language in two different reports that he believed painted too dire of a picture of the COVID-19 crisis.

“Pointing to one change — where CDC leaders allegedly changed the opening sentence of a report about spread of the virus among younger people after Alexander pressured them — Alexander wrote to Caputo, calling it a ‘small victory but a victory nonetheless and yippee!!!'” the Post reports.

Alexander also told Caputo about how he teamed up with Trump adviser Dr. Scott Atlas to alter a CDC weekly report on coronavirus-related deaths among young Americans.

The emails also show Alexander and Caputo wanted to cook up numbers on the alleged spike in suicides that were occurring during the pandemic, despite the fact that the number of suicides in the United States in 2020 actually fell by 6 percent.

“We need solid estimates to be able to say something like: 50,000 more cancer deaths! 40,000 more heart attacks! 25,000 more suicides!” Caputo wrote.

‘NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE’

A Trump appointee inside the Dept. of Health and Human Services was actively pushing the fallacious policy known as “herd immunity,” and specifically said “we want them infected” with the coronavirus.

That appointee, science adviser Paul Alexander, was a top aide to Michael Caputo. Caputo, who is not a medical expert but a political strategist and lobbyist, served as President Donald Trump’s eyes and ears inside HHS until his sudden medical leave of absence after a major scandal.

“There is no other way, we need to establish herd [immunity], and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD,” the July 4 email from Alexander to Caputo and six other HHS officials reads, as Politico reports.

“Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…”

Just a few weeks later Alexander again pushed the dangerous herd immunity policy, which coincidentally is the same one disgraced now-former Trump coronavirus advisor Scott Atlas would begin to promote when he joined the White House August 1.

“[I]t may be that it will be best if we open up and flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected” in order to get “natural immunity…natural exposure,” Alexander wrote on July 24 to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, Caputo and eight other senior officials.

The fact that a federal government official was promoting a deadly policy of infecting Americans with a deadly virus that has already killed more than 310,000 people in the U.S. has drawn massive outrage, especially among medical experts.

Here’s a sampling.

Epidemiologist and Health Economist Eric Feigl-Ding did not mince words:

⚠️Holy crap—“WE WANT THEM INFECTED”. WH & HHS advisor demanded “herd immunity” strategy. Disgusting!

“Infants, kids, teens, young adults, middle aged w/ no conditions have 0 to little risk—so we **use them to develop herd**—we want them infected” #COVID19https://t.co/f8s1wBDkCT

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 16, 2020

Dr. Cleavon Gilman, and emergency medicine physician “on the Covid Frontlines” calls it a crime against humanity:

Crimes Against Humanity!! A top Trump appointee repeatedly urged top health officials to adopt a “herd immunity” approach to Covid-19 and allow millions of Americans to be infected by the virus, according to internal emails obtained by a House watchdog and shared with POLITICO. https://t.co/WuW3KL29z9

— Cleavon MD (@Cleavon_MD) December 16, 2020

Researcher, ebola and coronavirus expert, Dena Grayson, MD, PhD:

NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE: “There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD,” then-science adviser Paul Alexander wrote on July 4 to his boss, @HHSGov assistant secretary Michael Caputo.🤬 https://t.co/WIWgDTXgKJ

— Dena Grayson, MD, PhD (@DrDenaGrayson) December 16, 2020

Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist, also did not hold back.

“Paul Alexander is an inept disgrace and he should never work in public health EVER again,” she tweeted. “His ignorance of fundamental principles of virology and pathogenesis would be laughable if it wasn’t used to make such appalling policy recommendations.”

More:

These folk keep popping up like mushrooms. So damn unethical. We probably need additional laws against these kind of actions. #HerdImmunityScourge

— Dr. Faris Durmo MD., BSc. (@Dr_FarrisD) December 16, 2020

Appalling criminal dereliction of duty as a physician and public health official. Let’s remember who Paul Alexander is: Interfered with and doctored CDC reports. Appointed by Michael Caputo, who has NO science background, worked for Russian Gazprom media to improve Putin image https://t.co/KXGuRGiVlc

— Douglas Chin MD FACS (@DougChinMD) December 16, 2020

Um…. No. Dr. Alexander, herd immunity is achieved by vaccination, not by intentionally exposing millions of unsuspecting Americans to untold risks of severe disease, disability, and death…. PERIOD.

— Douglas Chin MD FACS (@DougChinMD) December 16, 2020

Guess what? All those “herd immunity by natural infection” proponents arguing that COVID-19 doesn’t harm young people were…..wait for it…..wait for it…..WRONG. I’m looking forward to them saying “We were wrong.” That will happen, maybe, um, never. https://t.co/SFO8FLVvcM

— Prof. Gavin Yamey MD MPH (@GYamey) December 16, 2020

Herd Immunity as a strategy: “that way lies madness”

You killed all my elderly patients you monsters https://t.co/k1IGw5ZTfY

— Alicia Skarimbas MD (@ASkarimbas) December 16, 2020