YouTube Axes Florida Governor’s Video Over Claims Children Don’t Need to Wear Masks

YouTube has deleted a recording of a roundtable held by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis because of content that it said “contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities” on mask-wearing to stop the spread of COVID-19. DeSantis discussed the coronavirus pandemic with Dr. Scott Atlas, the former medical adviser to Donald Trump, Oxford epidemiologist Dr. Sunetra Gupta, Harvard professor Dr. Martin Kulldorff, and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya from Stanford University. The professors are the authors of a controversial paper dubbed “The Great Barrington Declaration” that argues against the prevailing public health advice on the coronavirus pandemic. Several of the speakers asserted that children did not need to wear masks to slow the spread of COVID-19, contrary to CDC guidelines, and DeSantis said at one point that “wearing masks for the general public is not evidence-based,” despite multiple studies that say otherwise. Links to the video now lead to a page bearing the message “This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.”