Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees listens during a press conference. The | AP photo
TALLAHASSEE – The coronavirus swept Florida in April when state Surgeon General Scott Rivkees warned that people in the state may have to distance themselves socially for up to a year. Minutes later, an assistant to Governor Ron DeSantis pulled him out of the report.
The assistant, DeSantis communications director Helen Aguirre Ferré blamed Rivkees’ abrupt removal of a scheduling conflict. But state records obtained by POLITICO challenge that claim.
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Rivkees, at the April briefing with reporters, had come out of the message. As spring break descended on Florida beaches in the spring, the script for the DeSantis administration was to minimize the dangers of the virus among young people.
Ferré at the time said Rivkees had to leave the briefing early because he had another meeting scheduled with Adrian Lukis, deputy chief of staff in the governor’s office.
On Wednesday, a DeSantis public records clerk said the office had no record of the state surgeon’s general meeting with a deputy chief of staff. The governor’s office did not respond to Lukis’ request to schedule for April 13.
High-level meetings are generally accompanied by summaries, notes, general information, and other documentation, such as calendars and invitations. But in the case of the April 13 meeting that Ferré said took place, there appears to be no paper or digital record, according to records officials at the governor’s office.
In response to a POLITICO request for such documents, DeSantis’ office 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 That meeting ended at 11 a.m., four hours before the 3-pm coronavirus briefing at Rivkees was withdrawn.
The documents included a calendar invitation to a handful of people, including Lukis and Rivkees, and an email notification showing that Lukis had accepted the meeting invitation.
There are no such records for the meeting Ferré described when reporters in April asked about Rivkees’ abrupt departure from the briefing.
In an email sent to POLITICO on Thursday, Ferré said Rivkees and Lukis had a separate and unplanned meeting.
“The Open Government provided them with all the receptive records,” said Ferré. “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 announced Thursday that he was leaving the DeSantis office, did not respond to follow-up questions, and Lukis did not respond to email questions.
Rivkiees and DOH spokesman Alberto Moscoso did not respond to a request for comment.
Rivkees, who heads the Florida Department of Health, has had few public appearances since then and has not attended a DeSantis coronavirus briefing since May. He meets regularly 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 executive order of coronavirus. At the time, the Republican governor was working to strengthen the protection of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, but he greatly minimized the overall impact of the outbreak.
“We do not have a vaccine at this time, so our mitigation measure is social distancing, six feet away from each other,” Rivkees said during the briefing. “As long as we have Covid in the environment, and it is a resistant virus, we will have to practice these measures so that we are all protected.”
He said “probably a year if not more” when asked how long those measures would be in effect.
A week later, DeSantis named a task force of state business leaders to make Florida one of the first states to reopen its economy after the pandemic-related shutdown. It entered its phase one reopening on May 18, and entered parts of phase 2 on June 1. The second phase lifted certain restrictions in bars, restaurants, gyms and cinemas.
At the time, Florida’s infection numbers were relatively good, but deteriorated after the reopening.
The state has now 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.
