Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has hired an obscure Ohio blogger and sometime Uber driver with a penchant for sending around COVID-19 conspiracy theories online as a data analyst in the Office of Policy and Budget, the Miami Herald reports. “Fact is, I’m not an ‘expert.’ I’m not a doctor, epidemiologist, virologist or scientist,” Lamb wrote on a website where he hosts a podcast about the coronavirus. “I also don’t need to be. Experts don’t have all the answers, and we’ve learned that the hard way.” Lamb has baselessly claimed online that masks do not protect people from spreading the virus, that lockdowns aren’t effective, that COVID-19 might be part of a Chinese “biowar,” that it isn’t more deadly than the flu, that hydroxychloroquine can treat the virus, and that it isn’t dangerous for children to contract. Each of these claims has been debunked by scientific evidence. Fred Piccolo, a spokesperson for DeSantis, said Lamb’s work will not be “exclusively” focused on COVID-19 and that his analysis will pass “through about 10 hands” before the governor sees it. “It’s not a COVID-19 hire,” Piccolo said.
