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Q&A Of The Day – Is DeSantis’s Ban Of Vaccine Passports for Cruises Off Base?
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s entry: Do you think DeSantis is making a mistake? This looks pretty overwhelming.
Bottom Line: The “this” was a link to the Sun Sentinel article... Unlike DeSantis, Floridians support cruise ship vaccinations. The article is centered around the University of South Florida polling suggesting the overwhelming majority of Floridians think proof of vaccination for cruise ship passengers should happen. Now, first it’s worth noting the actual surveying by USF was 13 pages in total and what the Sun Sentinel decided to focus primarily on was only a 26th of what was researched. Here’s the next point I can tell you about the survey. It’s flawed. How do I know? The survey was conducted of Floridians 18 and older. In the survey over 64% of those participating had been vaccinated. As of the state’s most recent report, approximately 56% of Floridians 18 and older had been vaccinated. The sample is heavily skewed in favor of those who’ve already been vaccinated and thus would logically be more inclined to side in favor of vaccine mandates. Incidentally, USF to their credit denoted that their sample didn’t line up with actual state vaccinations. The Sun-Sentinel for their part in their reporting, did not. Then there’s the actual questions regarding the cruise industry. The Sentinel’s coverage fails to provide proper context.
When asked which answer best describes your position these were the answers:
- Cruise lines should NOT be allowed to require guests to show proof of vaccination – 24%
- It should be up to individual cruise lines whether they want to require guests to provide proof of vaccination – 33%
- It should be mandatory for guests to provide proof of vaccination on all cruises that port in Florida - 43%
While only 24% in the survey said the ban best describes their position, notably only 43% said mandatory vaccinations best describes their view. So back to the headline of the story. It’s clearly both false and misleading and by the time you adjust for the flawed sample, does it really communicate any clear message at all? I broke this down for you for a couple of reasons. First, a reminder that fake and biased news is still all around us, and agenda driven members of news media have turned their attention from Trump to DeSantis. And second, to address the issue itself since this issue is coming to a head.
If you look at the issue as to whether there should be mandatory proof of vaccinations for Covid-19 in order to transact with businesses you’re missing the bigger picture. Yes, it’s about Covid-19 vaccines today. Once you open that door what will it be tomorrow? Are we to create two classes of Americans? Those who go along with dictates regarding personal health decisions by the government in order to conduct business with private companies and those who don’t? What’s free about that kind of society. And what about religious objections? And what about people like my mother who have medical conditions which preclude them from being able to be vaccinated? Are they just to be cast away in society as second-class citizens.
In our society we’ve been taught and commonly conditioned to be linear thinkers – rather than seeing the big picture, the view of the possible. That’s a mistake and its why Governor DeSantis stands firmly opposed and why he’s right to error on the side of civil liberties as opposed to potentially oppressive mandates.