Why DeSantis yanked Florida's surgeon general from a coronavirus briefing
TALLAHASSEE — The coronavirus was sweeping Florida in April when state Surgeon General Scott Rivkees warned that people in the state might have to social distance for up to a year. Minutes later, an aide to Gov. Ron DeSantis whisked him out of the briefing.
The aide, DeSantis communications director Helen Aguirre Ferré, blamed Rivkees’ abrupt removal on a scheduling conflict. But state records obtained by POLITICO challenge that assertion.
Rivkees, at the April briefing with reporters, had gone off message. As spring breakers descended on Florida’s beaches in the spring, the DeSantis administration script was to downplay the dangers of the virus among young people.
Ferré at the time said Riv...
