Thread by @Matt_Fleming321

1/ It wasn't a conspiracy theory, it was a #CrimeAgainstHumanity...and it came from Florida. 🧵

The GOP started lying about COVID when Trump called it a "hoax". THAT lie has cost hundreds of thousands of American🇺🇲 lives. It also made them and their friends billions $$.

#Facts

2/ Trump said it was a hoax on Feb 27, 2020. Community transmission was being confirmed in multiple cities in the US. Around the world, case numbers were increasing exponentially everywhere one was found, and economic disruptions began roiling global financial markets.

#Covid19

3/ Four Republican Senators on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee who knew how bad the virus was, sold their stocks ahead of a market collapse which saw equity valuations plunge up to 40% worldwide in a matter of weeks.

#HoldThemAccountable
fortune.com/2020/03/20/sen…

4/ Meanwhile, in Florida, spring break raged. Ron DeSantis encouraged it for 3 wks before declaring Spring Break "over", but he still refused to close businesses and beaches. #COVID19 spread MUCH more quickly around the country because of this dereliction.
businessinsider.com/coronavirus-fl…

5/ Spring's first deadly wave of the #pandemic began to subside in April as nationwide lockdowns and health protocols took effect, the #Florida Chamber of Commerce convinced @RonDeSantis to prematurely reopen everything against the guidance of the @CDC.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_C…

6/ While @GovRonDeSantis ignored the @CDC, his Department of Health fired data scientist #RebekahJones for refusing to manipulate #covid data on the state's case tracking dashboard. They wanted her to make it look like it wasn't as bad as it was.

usatoday.com/story/news/nat…

7/ The #coronavirus stimulus packages had passed #Congress, and an $8 trillion #bailout went to #WallStreet, hospitals, insurance co's, local govt's, and corps. Workers and individuals got practically nothing. They STILL won't expand #Medicaid even today.

orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne…

8/ In June, #2020, FL had the quickest resurgence of #Covid19 of any state. We are a tourist destination, this helped spread the virus across the #USA to places that would've otherwise been spared. Predictably, the racist #GOP blamed #GeorgeFloyd protests.
vox.com/future-perfect…

9/ Also in June 2020, #BetsyDeVos announced that she would be using the #pandemic and her authority as Secretary of Education to accelerate the #Privatization of public education.

#Greed
#GOPDeathCult
nea.org/advocating-for…

10/ Most shocking of all was a #July4th email from a #Trump appointee in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services @HHSGov to #MikeCaputo saying we "should fully reopen" "we want people to get infected".

#CrimeAgainstHumanity
#GOPDeathCult
politico.com/news/2020/12/1…

11/ This deliberate disregard for human life by our President and Governor inspired "#lockdown protests" across the country, where angry Trump supporters demanded that everything reopen, calling the pandemic a #hoax, and attacking health care workers and government buildings.

12/ As if that wasn't enough they threw #SuperSpreader beach parties and #BoatParades without any regard to #Covid19 or other people's lives. Calling it #DepravedIndifference is accurate.

#CrimeAgainstHumanity
#MAGAisDumb

/13 @DWUhlfelderLaw who had fought in court for open beaches and #CustomaryUse, went on national news dressed as the #GrimReaper, and sued to close the beaches to save lives. FL courts tried to punish him for it, calling the effort political.

Read:
sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/f…

14/ In winter of 2020/2021, the deadliest wave of #COVID struck and the coup failed. Vaccines were now becoming available. Misinformation about #vaccines and the effectiveness of COVID masks began spreading at an alarming rate.

Article from Jan 5th 2021:
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…

15/ Case #'s dropped significantly as people became #vaxxed and wore masks. @RonDeSantis did a victory lap selling beer coozies and t-shirts on his campaign website mocking Dr. #Fauci and masks. This, AFTER learning of a new much more contagious #coronavirus #deltavariant.

16/ With school approaching, #coronavirus numbers increasing, #Republican governors required students and #teachers return to school in person AND the #GOP governors began to prohibit local #schoolboards from issuing #maskmandates.

#HoldThemAccountable
wpbf.com/article/florid…

17/ Many #Florida school boards defied the governor's orders, and issued mask mandates anyways after it became apparent that, as predicted, #COVID cases spread rapidly through classrooms and schools, literally killing people.

#GOPDeathCult
#COVID19
politico.com/states/florida…

18/ In #Florida, the Aug/Sept. surge in #COVID was the deadliest yet. It overflowed hospitals. #MomsForLiberty and #insurrectionists spread misinformation, fought and protested mask mandates. This resulted in widespread threats and acts of violence.

https://twitter.com/Matt_Fleming321/status/1445455363030110208?t=Zy3TCH6FzF2ChNH0VvwtjQ&s=19

19/ While all of this Anti-mask, anti-vaccine hysteria spread along with COVID, Ron DeSantis was promoting treatment over prevention, downplaying the effectiveness of vaccines and masks, but opening up many subsidized, expensive treatment centers.

msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-…

20/

https://twitter.com/Matt_Fleming321/status/1445466773835300875?t=Byawwibsphp7hv73Rq910g&s=19

21/ It's almost as if they knew ahead of time...🤔

#HoldThemAccountable
#CrimeAgainstHumanity

https://twitter.com/Matt_Fleming321/status/1445456845796040704?t=z_BsXL01-FhqO6CGGkSo-Q&s=19

22/ So what's next? In Brazil, their government has referred their president's nearly identical and abhorrent approach to the virus to the International Criminal Court, calling it a "Crime Against Humanity"...which is accurate.

npr.org/2021/10/27/104…

23/ Perhaps the most telling #Irony in all of this, is Trump's supporters started calling #COVID a #ChineseBioweapon back in 2020, but when asked why they are helping to spread it, they come up stupid.

#HoldThemAccountable
politico.com/news/2020/06/0…

24/ ...Or maybe it was when they started taking a sheep de-wormer called #Ivermectin to treat #COVID-19 and adding poison overdoses to the strain of already overflowing hospitals while calling other people "sheep".

#Boebert

/25 The end result speaks for itself. In the U.S., 800,000 people are now dead which is the highest per capita number(~2400 per million) of any modern nation. Our per-capita death toll is literally 60 times more than Australia or South Korea(~80).

statista.com/statistics/110…

26/ In fact, just today, a congressional report confirms that the Trump admin did deliberately make #Covid19 worse.

nbcnews.com/politics/congr…