SARASOTA, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis once again refused to confirm whether he would receive or has already received a COVID-19 booster shot when asked by a reporter in Sarasota on Friday, calling the decision for Floridians a “private matter.”
“That’s something that I think people should just make their own decisions on,” the governor said. “I’m not going to let that be a weapon for people to be able to use. I think it’s a private matter.”
DeSantis has previously refused to confirm whether he will receive a booster shot, however his office previously confirmed that the governor received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine last spring.
Prior to receiving the vaccine, the governor had acknowledged that he preferred to get the single-dose shot over the more effective two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines because it was still highly effective at preventing serious illness from the virus.
On Friday, DeSantis maintained his stance against vaccine mandates, and questioned whether the push for boosters was politically driven.
“We worked hard to be able to protect people so they don’t lose their jobs on that,” he said. “I have said publicly that the FDA recommended against boosters for people in my age group, but the CDC overrode that, and I think that was based on politics. I don’t think that was based on science.”