Florida’s Republican governor has banned schools from requiring face masks for students and teachers by decree. According to Ron DeSantis, who is promoting himself as a possible presidential candidate in 2024, it is up to parents to decide what they want for their children. “I also have three young children. My wife and I don’t put a mask on them. We want to see them smile.”
Earlier this week, the CDC, the American RIVM, advised to wear face masks indoors again in peak regions of the virus, because vaccinated people can also pass on the delta variant. A Florida teachers’ union called for local coordination, something the DeSantis decree forbids.
The decision comes as the state reports 110,000 infections in a week, a fifth of the number of cases nationally. That is a doubling compared to seven days earlier and comparable to the figures from January, when there were no vaccines yet. 409 deaths were reported. According to DeSantis, the number of infections is rising because people with the warm weather are indoors more and air conditioning spreads the virus.
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