Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defends unvaccinated people who are catching COVID-19: Media is being 'judgmental'

• Gov. DeSantis said the media is "judgmental" of unvaccinated people who get sick from COVID-19.
• "Nobody's trying to get ill here," he told the press on Tuesday.
• Florida is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases, and most hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended unvaccinated people who were getting sick from COVID-19, saying the media was being "judgmental."

While speaking to the press in Miami on Tuesday, DeSantis was asked about the recent rise in COVID-19 cases among unvaccinated people in Florida, WESH reported.

"When somebody contracts a highly transmissible airborne virus, they're viewed as having done something wrong," he said. "And that's just not the way you do it when people come in, you treat them. Are you going to sit there and criticize, or are we going to try to treat, and try to help the folks? Nobody's trying to get ill here," the report said.

Florida reported its highest-ever number of daily COVID-19 cases on Friday, recording more than 21,000 new cases in one day.

Hospitalizations have also increased by more than 1,000 since June, and 95% of those hospitalized and almost all of the recent deaths have been among unvaccinated people, health officials told the Associated Press.

DeSantis railed against the press during the briefing, WESH reported, and accused journalists of fearmongering about the pandemic that has claimed over 600,000 American lives.

DeSantis said Florida's hospitals were "open for business" as he spoke to the press on Tuesday.

"Even in places that have more, COVID patients represent a fraction of the overall hospital beds and I don't want to see a repeat, that people with heart problems don't go in [to hospitals]," he said, WESH reported. "With all due respect, I find that deplorable to blame a victim who ends up being hospitalized. You don't know their story. You don't know what happened."