DeSantis, Rubio want high school sports to start

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio recently voiced their desire to have high school athletics return sooner than later.

During a press conference on the campus of the University of North Florida last week, DeSantis said getting athletes back to their respective sports is needed at this time.

“It's critical that we have boys and girls sports available for our students,” DeSantis said. “If someone develops symptoms, you take them out, isolate them, but what I would not do is just if one person gets ill and they're isolated and they test, to then shut down everything else.”

The day before DeSantis’ presser — on Wednesday, Aug. 5 — Rubio sent a letter to the governor quoting a recent national survey of high athletes and what he referred to as “startling and troubling findings” regarding depression and anxiety about there being no sports.

“Returning to high school athletics has generally been treated as a mere afterthought in the national debate over returning to school this fall,” Rubio wrote. “As it has always been, the safety and wellbeing of our student-athletes must be the top priority. This means protecting them from the dangers posed by COVID-19, but also protecting them from the significant socio-developmental harm of not being allowed to return to play.”

In the same letter, Rubio placed a proposal that concentrated on different elements to reduce the rate of infection: identifying and removing participants who may be infected with COVID-19, and limiting viral shedding by those infected through distance and masking practices adapted to the game of football.