Jayanta Bhattacharya, professor of medicine at the University of Stanford who also has a PhD in economics, praised DeSantis in a recent interview for the way that he managed the state of Florida’s response to the pandemic.
“I’ve never met a politician like him. He’s extraordinary,” Bhattacharya said. “We had a two-hour conversation, about COVID policies, this is in September of last year … and he had read all the papers I referenced and not just my just my articles, lots and lots of other papers. He knew all the details, it was a remarkable conversation. And then we had this like roundtable on September 25th, with Martin and Mike Leavitt, and with DeSantis leading it, and the next day he lifted most of the restrictions all across Florida.”
“He could go up against epidemiologists,” Bhattacharya said. “I mean, most, most epidemiologists don’t know the literature as well as he does. I mean, I just I don’t have the words… I’ve just been, I’m still stunned by it, I didn’t know anything about him actually, before, you know, basically before September really. I’ve just been very impressed.”
Bhattacharya said that Florida’s success during the pandemic was not the result of luck, but was a direct result of DeSantis being so well informed.