The extraordinary self-trophy in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic coverage may have been secured by Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative National Study, for the May 20 article entitled, “Where did Ron DeSantis go to apologize?”

Lowry’s aim is to defend the Republican-backed governor’s approach to the coronavirus crisis. DeSantis had “taken this seriously from the start, was immersed in data and research, and compiled responses that were well considered,” Lowry wrote in an editorial accompanying the full article.

However, “The media has described DeSantis as a yokel that will get Floridians killed with a weak approach,” Lowry continued. “Conventional wisdom has begun to change about Florida, because the widely predicted disaster has not yet materialized.”

Thus, Lowry succeeded in simultaneously showing his own ignorance of the disasters that had arisen and founded DeSantis for large calculations. That’s because the widely predicted disaster has now hit Florida very hard. Lowry, and DeSantis, declared victory too early.

On Friday, state health officials confirmed 8,942 new COVID-19 cases, “almost double the previous case record reported in one day, two days before,” report on the Miami Herald.

The percentage of tests that returned positive for COVID-19 has also jumped, to 14.74% on Friday. That is well above the 10% threshold which public health officials say implies a controlled infection rate, and far above the national average of 5.5%.

We have reported DeSantis’s strategy and belief in his prior policies. Then, and now, we do not intend to choose DeSantis for a pandemic surge within the borders of his country. He is not the only governor who failed to deal with the corona virus.

Infection has increased in other red states, especially Texas and Arizona, and also in the blue states.

California, where Governor Gavin Newsom instituted an order to stay in the first home in the country and has supported socially distanced measures and the use of masks in public – and issued mandatory mask orders on June 16 – has experienced a warning that is alarming about an increase in cases.

As my colleague Taryn Luna reports, the number of patients hospitalized in California has jumped 32% in the past two weeks to 4,240, double the two-week increase of the 16% reported by Newsom on Monday. The country’s positive test ratio, remained stable at around 5.1%.

Overall, 33 states have increased caseloadsSo politics doesn’t have to be the only determining factor in a battle.

This tendency refers to the difficulties faced by political leaders in encouraging socially responsible antipandemic behavior, such as staying at home and wearing masks, among people who are tired of restrictions, especially with limited background or no progress towards the virus.

In California, Newsom must accommodate local officials and constituents who oppose this policy by allowing them to reopen commercial companies and public spaces even where coronaviruses are clearly out of control.

So what makes DeSantis a special case? It was he who was the governor who turned the battle against COVID-19 into a political problem.

The main politician of the battle, of course, is President Trump, who from the beginning described the crisis as a personal insult, treating antiviral measures as a political arrow aimed at himself, completely refusing to set an example for the public by participating in them, and illustrating success against the pandemic as political validation.

Now that the battle has disappeared and more than 120,000 Americans have perished from a coronavirus on his watch, Trump is largely lost in action, as is the rest of his government.

Consider how things would be different if he only advised Americans to wear masks in public and do it themselves, as a model. Thousands of lives might have been saved and the idea that barefoot is a kind of political statement would be stuck in the box.

DeSantis has played the role of Donald Trump’s apprentice for most of the pandemic period. He personalizes criticism of state policy, as if it’s all about him. He grumbled about being the target of a “partisan narrative” that predicted a surge in cases of illness related to the reopening of Florida that was said to be carried out by commercial businesses and recreation areas.

He complained that the media had “become poetic for weeks about how Florida would become like New York,” and boasted that it was not at all.

His March 24 Orders requiring visitors from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to quarantine for 14 days, aimed at “people fleeing to Florida from the state where ‘shelter’ orders are being carried out, including from the New Tri-State Territory York, “it seems to play into the red state vs the blue state mentality.

That was especially so because Florida had opened its shores for spring break which threatened to export disease nationally. (Now the shoes are on the other foot, because the Northeastern states that have finally brought their cases under control have imposed quarantine on travelers from Florida.)

“We succeeded,” DeSantis said on May 20, “and I don’t think people want to recognize it because it challenges their narratives.” That was the day Lowry published his text for the superior wisdom of DeSantis in the National Review.

Other Republican Governors play the same game. Like Trump, some of these governors tried to stem the pandemic by restricting public access to data, firing statistical analysts or even manipulating these figures.

Some even go further than DeSantis by actively disrupting local antivirus efforts. Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey banned regions from needing masks, even though he lifted the restrictions a week ago.

Ducey promotes the idea that coronavirus is controlled by held a permanent order in the state on May 15, although there is a warning that it’s too early. Ten days later, the country’s caseload began to increase, reflecting the average time period between exposure and symptoms. Arizona is now the main hot spot for infection growth.

In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott oversees one of the most careless responses in the country. He did not issue an order to stay home until April 2, then revoked it on April 30. He also banned local officials from imposing rules on wearing masks.

Texas has joined Arizona and Florida among the most popular places in the country. Now all three are trying to back away from the abyss. Ducey and Abbott have slowed the reopening of their country. Abbott closes the Texas bar again, ordering restaurants to reduce capacity by 50% and prohibiting meetings outside more than 100 people. DeSantis bans alcohol sales in Florida bars.

But damage has occurred. The three governors either explicitly or implicitly promote the idea that behavior such as wearing a mask is a matter of individual choice, the wrong expression of “personal freedom.”

The freedom to infect your neighbor and become infected yourself, however, is not freedom at all. Political leaders who underestimate the magnitude of this public health crisis, do not take action or block smart actions, and preach about the freedom they give their countries to play politics for no other reason than personal gain. This virus does not value politics, and it makes their constituents pay to neglect the duties of their leader.