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 Rivkees had to leave the briefing early because he had another scheduled meeting with Adrian Lukis, a deputy chief of staff at the governor’s office.
On Wednesday, a DeSantis’ public records employee said the office had no record of the state surgeon general meeting with a deputy chief of staff. The governor’s office did not respond to a request for Lukis’ calandar for April 13.
High-level meetings typically are accompanied by briefs, notes, background information and other documentation, such as calendars and invitations. But in the case of the April 13 meeting Ferré said took place, no paper or digital record appears to exist, according to records officials in the governor’s office.
In response to a POLITICO request for such documents, DeSantis’ office on Wednesday provided documentation of an April 13 meeting that included Rivkees, Lukis and others. That meeting ended at 11 a.m., four hours before the 3 p.m. coronavirus briefing Rivkees was pulled from.
The documents included a calendar invite to a handful of people, including Lukis and Rivkees and an email notification showing Lukis had accepted the meeting invitation.
No such records exist for the meeting that Ferré described when reporters in April asked about Rivkees’ abrupt exit from the briefing.
In an email to POLITICO on Thursday, Ferré said Rivkees and Lukis had a separate, unplanned meeting.
“Open Government provided you all responsive records,” Ferré said. “In addition to that previously scheduled morning meeting, Dr. Rivkees had a meeting with Deputy Chief of Staff Adrian Lukis in the afternoon. Meetings at the EOG are concurrent throughout the day.”
Ferré, who on Thursday announced she was leaving DeSantis’ office, did not answer follow-up questions and Lukis did not respond to emailed questions.
Rivkiees and DOH spokesperson Alberto Moscoso did not respond to requesst for comment.
Rivkees, who leads the Florida Department of Health, has had few public appearances since and hasn’t attended a DeSantis coronavirus briefing since May. He regularly meets in private with the governor, according to the governor’s public daily calendars.
Rivkees made his social distancing comment on April 13, two weeks after DeSantis issued his first coronavirus executive order. At the time, the Republican governor was working to beef up protection for nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, but largely downplayed the outbreak’s overall impact.
“We don’t have a vaccine at the present time, so our mitigation measure is the social distancing, six feet away from each other,” Rivkees said during the briefing. “As long as we are going to have Covid in the environment, and it is a tough virus, we are going to have to practice these measures so that we are all protected.”
He said “probably a year if not longer” when asked how long those measures would be in place.
A week later, DeSantis named a task force of state business leaders tasked with making Florida one of the first states to reopen its economy after the pandemic-related shutdown. It entered its phase one reopening May 18, and entered parts of phase 2 on June 1. The second phase lifted certain restrictions on bars, restaurants, gyms and movie theaters.
At the time, Florida’s infection numbers were relatively good, but they deteriorated after the reopening.
The state now has become an international hot spot for the virus. Florida reported another 11,345 infections on Friday and has reported nearly 5,000 deaths from Covid-19.