As COVID-19 cases continuing to soar in Florida, a petition has garnered more than 35.000 signatures to oust Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) amid his controversial pandemic responses.
The petition, started by Cameron White, denounces DeSantis’ stance on COVID-19, as well his efforts to make unemployment benefits more difficult to receive.
“Governor Ron DeSantis and former governor Rick Scott have made filing for unemployment in Florida impossible. They care more about showing low unemployment numbers than they do if Floridians have enough to eat,” the petition reads.
“Aside from this sad fact, DeSantis waited until the last minute to issue a stay-at-home order which without a doubt caused the Coronavirus to spread much faster than necessary. The governor has also went directly against CDC guidelines and allowed churches to still have large gatherings. He is not fit to be our governor and needs to be removed as quickly as the constitution allows.”
The petition was started in early 2020. But it has only become viral recently, as the Delta variant of the COVID-19 cases is quickly surging in the state and the governor hasn’t taken any comprehensive action to address the crisis. On Sunday, the petition had reached its 35,000 signatures threshold.
Last week, the White House confirmed that hospitals in Florida have received 200 ventilators from the federal government recently due to the growth of the pandemic in the state.
DeSantis is pressing schools in Florida to follow his executive order, which states that schools can’t enforce mask mandates for their students and staff.
The governor has also threatened school officials with withholding their wages if they don’t obey his executive order.
In response, the Biden administration said that it will seek to give financial help to the school officials who are defying the governor’s ban on mask mandates for their school districts.
