DeSantis urges public to get vaccinated: These shots are ‘saving lives’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is urging Floridians to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, saying that the shots are “saving lives.” 

In a press conference on Wednesday, DeSantis told reporters that 95% of the people being admitted to hospitals in the state due to COVID-19 complications haven’t been vaccinated at all, implying that “vaccines are saving lives,” especially with regard to nursing homes. 

“If you look at the people that are being admitted to hospitals …. over 95% of them are either not fully vaccinated or not vaccinated at all,” DeSantis said. “These vaccines are saving lives. They are reducing mortality.” 

DeSantis also said that people who are vaccinated will not experience the current wave of new COVID-19 cases in the state, saying that he gets a “little bit frustrated” over jurisdictions in the state still enforcing mask mandates, arguing that those jurisdictions are implying that the vaccines don’t work. 

“It’s telling them that the vaccines don’t work. I think that’s the worst message you can send to people at this time because I think that the data has been really, really good in terms of preserving people …. saving people’s lives … reducing mortality dramatically,” DeSantis said. 

DeSantis’s remarks come after the White House announced last week that nearly 20 percent of the nation’s new coronavirus infections are now happening in Florida alone.