'Here, people are living life,' says Florida Governor DeSantis

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a press conference on Thursday where he talked about nursing homes, vaccinations, and how his state compares to others in general in handling the pandemic.

DeSantis first talks in the video about the issues of nursing homes and highlight's the state of Florida's record and achievements in that area:

"This is all about the well-being of those residents [of Florida nursing homes] and making sure that, yes, take steps, which we have done, to protect their lives."

"Florida was the first state to vaccinate nursing home residents. Because, the CVS and Walgreens, their programs started basically a week after the first vaccines hit, which was fine; that's what they had planned."

"But we said, 'you know what? we gotta go!' So we did 106 nursing homes in Broward and Pinellas [counties] with our strike teams, first one on the ground there doing that."

"All 4000 facilities in Florida have been offered a vaccine. Now, most seniors have taken it. Not all of them have, which is fine."

"And now, protect life, but also make sure it's a life worth living. Make sure they have fulfillment. Make sure they have the ability to see family members and do all that... isolation is very destructive."

This contrasts starkly with the fiasco in, for example, New York state nursing homes, where the death count isn't even clear at this point.

DeSantis then pivoted to the subject of life in his state compared to other states:

"I was just talking to a friend of mine who was in DC and he’s like, 'The difference between Florida and DC, DC is like dead, totally dead.' Here, people are living life. They are happier. You just want to be here compared to that."

"We were the first with the testing. We were the first with the protections against the discharges in the facilities, first with the vaccines."