Florida democratic Party update

 COVID-19 is still wreaking havoc in Florida. As of Saturday October 9 the state ranked eighth nationally in per capita COVID deaths over the seven previous days.

• Despite the current health crisis, DeSantis continues to oppose any cities or municipalities expanding COVID public health measures, including enacting mask protocols.
• An October 6 violation notice from the Florida Department of Health gave Leon County until November 5 to pay a $3.57 million penalty for its employee vaccine requirement.
• The Governor is also fighting businesses and governments requiring proof of COVID vaccination from customers. On Thursday, September 16, the Florida Department of Health began enforcing a $5,000 per violation charge under a law signed by DeSantis blocking so-called “vaccine passports.”
• DeSantis is now working on a law that would bar employers from requiring that their employees be vaccinated.
• The Governor has been traveling to other states such as New Jersey and Nebraska over the past weeks, promoting his own political brand and raising funds while his state suffers.
• Governor DeSantis is more interested in downplaying the threat of this pandemic and appealing to a radical constituency within his own party than in acting decisively to protect Floridians from grave illness and death.

• On Wednesday September 22, GOP Florida State Representative Webster Barnaby filed HB 167, an anti-choice bill patterned after Texas’ infamous law that bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat has been detected and empowers private individuals, not authorities, to enforce the law.
• Given the GOP’s radical and abject hostility to women’s reproductive and health care rights, it was only a matter of time before Florida Republicans rushed to imitate Texas’s law and assault a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.
• The Florida Democratic Party stands unequivocally behind a woman’s right to choose, and no one has a right to interfere with her health care choices. We will fight tooth and nail against any attempt to bring a Texas-style anti-abortion law to Florida.
• As Chairman Manny Diaz said: “The Florida Democratic Party will mobilize down to the last woman and man in our ranks; we will exhaust every resource, contest every legislative maneuver and join every battle necessary to ensure a woman’s right to choose in our state. If Republicans attempt to bring Texas’ shocking and radical anti-abortion bill to Florida, we will give them the fight of their lives.”

Three of the major components of the Build Back Better Agenda are:

• CLIMATE: Tackling the climate crisis by creating good-paying, union jobs – like those building electric cars - that build a clean energy future, strengthens our nation’s resilience to more frequent extreme weather events, puts people to work capping wells and restoring abandoned mines, and puts in place tax cuts that accelerate clean energy technology and bolster domestic supply chains.
• HEALTH: Making health care more affordable, lowering health care costs and premiums by extending the American Rescue Plan’s cost savings and closing the Medicaid gap for low-income Americans, and lowering prescription drug costs.
• FAMILY: Making caring for your family more affordable, extending the Child Tax Credit to cut taxes for middle class families to give them more breathing room, and making child care and elder care more affordable – and helping people, especially women, get back into the workforce.

 As more and more businesses and organizations across the country implement vaccine requirements it is becoming clearer every day: Vaccination requirements are working.

• The White House released a new report on how vaccination requirements are helping to drive up vaccination rates, put people back to work, and strengthen the economy.
• First, vaccination requirements result in more people vaccinated. They have increased vaccination rates by 20+ percentage points to over 90% in many organizations—across different sectors.
• United Airlines has over 99% of its 67,000-person workforce in compliance.
• Houston Methodist got 98% of its workforce vaccinated.
• Rutgers University got over 99% of their 71,000 students vaccinated or in compliance.
• Second, vaccination requirements are good for the economy and the labor market. Higher vaccination rates could help up to 5 million workers return back into the workforce as people feel safer to go back to work and no longer have childcare issues. And higher vaccination rates will boost consumer demand and spending as people feel more comfortable dining out at restaurants, shopping at local small businesses, and traveling.
• Third, vaccination requirements are becoming the standard across all sectors. More than 3,500 organizations have already stepped up to require vaccinations, and thousands more will do the same in the weeks ahead as the president’s vaccination requirements go into effect.
• Fourth, vaccination requirements have broad public support. Vaccination requirements are nothing new in this country. They have been helping us successfully fight diseases like measles and polio for years. COVID-19 vaccination requirements are supported by businesses, labor unions, workers, students, and a majority of the public support. Why? Because people want this pandemic to be over and understand that getting more people vaccinated is the key to doing that

 Since January 20, we have gone from about three million fully vaccinated Americans to more than 187 million.

• We are bringing the same wartime spirit and science-based approach that we have always brought to match the scale and type of challenges we face as the virus evolves.
• President Biden’s COVID-19 action plan focuses on:
• Vaccinating the Unvaccinated: President Biden announced vaccination requirements that cover an estimated 100 million Americans – two-thirds of all workers – including all employees in the federal government and those at most health care settings.
• Further Protecting the Vaccinated: President Biden announced there will be enough booster shots available to everyone for free as soon as they are authorized – with a national distribution system ready, providing easy access for all eligible Americans, and ensuring Americans know where to get a booster.
• Keeping Schools Safely Open: The president called on all governors to require vaccinations for all teachers and staff, will require vaccination for educators at federal Head Start Programs, and is helping increase regular testing at schools. And, any teacher or school official whose pay is withheld by a governor will have that pay restored by the federal government – 100%.
• Increasing Testing & Requiring Masking: The president’s plan will ensure that every American – no matter their income – can access free, convenient tests. The plan expands easy-to-use testing production through the Defense Production Act, makes tests more affordable, expands free pharmacy testing, and sends free rapid tests to food banks and community health centers. The plan also continues to require masking for interstate travel and on federal property.
• Protecting Our Economic Recovery: The president announced several programs that will help ensure the U.S. economy continues to grow, including an expansion of the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program so small businesses can borrow up to $2 million to keep their businesses strong.
• Improving Care for Those with COVID-19: The administration is strengthening its surge response, with nearly 1,000 personnel already deployed across 18 states and the Department of Defense doubling the number of their teams deployed to support hospitals. The administration is also increasing the weekly pace of monoclonal antibody shipments.