GOVERNOR Ron DeSantis will pardon all Floridians that have been prosecuted for failing to wear a face-covering or socially distance, he announced last night.
The Republican made the announcement on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle last night as he appeared alongside two gym owners who had been arrested several times by cops for not enforcing mandatory mask-wearing.
Mike Carnevale, of Plantation, was first busted by cops last July for allegedly not requiring people to wear masks in his gym.
He was arrested another two times along with his wife Jillian, NBC Miami reports.
Gov. DeSantis told Laura Ingraham that he will be signing a “reprieve” under his constitutional authority.
He said: “When our clemency board meets in the coming weeks, we’ll issue pardons not only for Mike and Jillian but for any Floridian that may have outstanding infractions for things like masks and social distancing.
“The fact is it’s not even right to be wearing masks when you’re exercising. The World Health Organization advises against it.
“It’s not healthy for people to be doing that in the first place, so it was a bad restriction, but these things with health should be advisory, they should not be punitive and so we are happy to use our constitutional authority.”
The WHO advises that even in areas with high Covid transmissions, masks should not be worn while exercising.
Guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that for healthy Americans wearing a mask while exercising has shown not to be harmful.
But, those who may be affected by conditions such as asthma or heart disease should seek medical advice before exercising while wearing a face covering.
Joe Biden’s coronavirus chief Dr. Anthony Fauci has since suggested that rules on wearing masks indoors should be relaxed because many Americans have been vaccinated.
He was asked on ABC News last week if he agreed it was time to start relaxing the guidance on wearing face coverings inside.
Dr. Fauci said: “I think so, and I think you’re going to probably be seeing that as we go along, and as more people get vaccinated.
‘The CDC will be, almost in real time, updating their recommendations and their guidelines.
“But, yes, we do need to start being more liberal as we get more people vaccinated.”
The CDC advises that fully vaccinated Americans can safely go without masks outside except in crowded spaces.
Indoors, it’s recommended that even fully vaccinated people should still wear masks in public settings.
Last week, the Florida Governor signed an executive order suspending all local Covid emergency orders across the Sunshine State, News 6 reported.
He said: “We need a new construct for these emergency powers that have been used throughout the country — lesser so, obviously, from the state of Florida’s perspective — but certainly we’ve had local governments do it.
“We worked very hard, particularly since (last) summer, to jettison those types of policies and we focused on lifting people up.”
The Governor added: “We wanted people going back to work. We wanted our kids to be in school — we thought that that was very important that parents have the ability to send their kids to school — and we wanted our economy to be healthy.
“We wanted our society to be healthy. We wanted people to be happy living in Florida.”
The order only applies to the government as private businesses such as grocery stores and theme parks can still enforce mandatory mask-wearing.
Last month, the Florida governor said the White House’s Covid vaccine messaging was “terrible“.
The CDC advised people to wear two masks, claiming it’s more effective in preventing the spread of the virus particularly as more contagious Covid variants have emerged.
DeSantis said, however, that “it doesn’t make sense” for people who have been vaccinated, WFLA reported.
He claimed: “My view is is if you get a vaccine, the vaccines are effective.
“You’re immune and so, act immune. If you tell people the opposite, then gee, you know why, if it’s not effective for them and it’s not going to change anything then what’s the point of going through it?”
