Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has refused to declare an emergency over rising cases of monkeypox in the state and claimed that the media and politicians were unnecessarily stoking fear about the illness.
The Republican governor was asked about the rising cases in his state during a news conference he called in Brevard County on Wednesday to announce an opioid treatment initiative.
In response, he said Florida would not adopt a policy of “fear”.
“I am so sick of politicians, and we saw this with Covid, trying to sow fear into the population,” Mr DeSantis said. “We had people calling, mothers worried about whether their kids could catch it at schools.”
“We are not doing fear,” he added. “And we are not going to go out and try to rile people up and try to act like people can’t live their lives as they’ve been normally doing because of something.”
Mr DeSantis, who has been a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s response to Covid-19, also slammed blue states that have declared emergency over rising cases of monkeypox and said they restricted people’s freedom.
“You see some of these states declaring states of emergency. They’re going to abuse those emergency powers to restrict your freedom. I guarantee you that’s what will happen,” Mr DeSantis said.
“Any of these politicians you see out there trying to scare you about this – do not listen to their nonsense,” he said.
Representative Charlie Crist, who is challenging the Republican in the Florida gubernatorial race, slammed the governor’s comments on Twitter.
“While Governor DeSantis dismisses monkeypox, at-risk Floridians still need better information, better testing, and access to vaccines for prevention,” Mr Crist wrote.
Florida has reported more than 500 cases of monkeypox, more than double from last week. There are concerns that as schools open, the cases could soar further.
The US has reported more than 6,300 confirmed cases of monkeypox so far, while overall infections across the world have now surpassed 25,300.
