Ron DeSantis Takes Victory Lap After Gainesville Rescinds COVID Vaccine Mandate Following Court Ruling

Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis took a victory lap today after the city of Gainesville rescinded their COVID vaccine mandate following a court ruling against them.

In a tweet, DeSantis said, “Florida workers should not lose their jobs based on COVID shots. The City of Gainesville rescinded its mandate, which threatened to kill many jobs.”

“We must protect the jobs of hard-working Floridians from destructive mandates imposed by local politicians,” DeSantis added.

Florida workers should not lose their jobs based on COVID shots. The City of Gainesville rescinded its mandate, which threatened to kill many jobs.

We must protect the jobs of hard-working Floridians from destructive mandates imposed by local politicians.

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 1, 2021

Last Wednesday, Circuit Judge Monica Brasington ruled the city of Gainesville must not enforce its vaccine mandate and cannot discipline, or terminate, employees for failing to get vaccinated.

In her order, Judge Brasington wrote that, “The city failed to put on any evidence that the Vaccine Mandate serves a compelling state interest or that the Vaccine Mandate was the least restrictive means to accomplish that interest.”

Gainesville Public Information Officer Rossana Passaniti at the time vowed, “Given the court’s ruling, we will continue our efforts to improve vaccination rates among our workforce through education and incentives.”

“We recognize the reality of vaccine hesitancy and vaccine disinformation but agree with public health experts that vaccination is key in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” Passaniti explained.

DeSantis issued a news release on the situation and called it a “victory for liberty:”

This week, after alerting the City of Gainesville of their possible violation of the vaccination passport ban in Florida, the Florida Department of Health received a response indicating the City of Gainesville rescinded its employee vaccine mandate. This reversal also follows an Eighth Judicial Circuit Court temporary injunction preventing vaccine mandates for city employees.

“In May, I signed SB 2006 to empower Floridians – not elected politicians – to take charge of their personal health decisions,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “We are not going to allow our first responders and government employees, many of whom have been on the front lines for over a year and a half, to be cast aside by local politicians’ mandates. This reversal by the City of Gainesville is a victory for liberty.”

“Floridians have the right to make their own decisions regarding the health of themselves and their families,” said Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo. “As a new resident to Florida, I am glad to see that the City of Gainesville has changed course on employee vaccine mandates. Without COVID-19 mandates, the State of Florida has been highly successful in vaccinating over 70% of the population.”

Two weeks ago, Governor DeSantis held an event to reinforce Florida’s commitment to pushing back against government vaccine mandates. The event highlighted stories from impacted City of Gainesville employees, with the Governor saying:

“What we are seeing out of Washington D.C. and local governments like the City of Gainesville and Orange County should alarm Floridians, and raises important questions – if you can have people like firefighters who put lives on the line every day forced to either lose their jobs or get the vaccine regardless of immunity, how does that protect our community or keep us safer? It doesn’t. This is political, it’s about using government power to control. We’re going to protect these jobs; we’re going to protect livelihoods and we’re going to protect families.”

This past May, Governor DeSantis signed landmark legislation to ban vaccine passports in Florida. Senate Bill 2006 which, among other provisions, specifically bans governmental entities in Florida from requiring proof of vaccination or post-infection recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from their operations, including employees. Additionally, the law imposes a $5,000 fine per violation for any entity, including government entities, that asks to see proof of vaccination in Florida.