DeSantis has been drifting in that direction for months. As the pace of vaccinations slowed both in Florida and across the nation, and as the most devastating Covid wave to hit Florida started to swamp the state over the summer, DeSantis’ comments about the need for more shots became more nuanced. That took a back seat to his promotion of monoclonal antibody treatments like Regeneron, which he started in earnest in mid-August as the state was breaking records for new infections and hospitalizations.

“There is no question that the back-and-forth stance that [DeSantis] is taking is confusing his followers,” said Aileen Marty, a Florida International University epidemiologist. “This is one of the worst infectious diseases the human race has dealt with in a long time. And in a pandemic, it causes stress, anxiety and fear. And a key way that people deal with that is denial. So when you vocalize things that feed on people’s denialism of a threat, you disarm them from doing what they need to do to actually reduce their risk. That’s just not a good thing.”

It’s not that DeSantis opposes vaccines — he got one himself — or that he has spoken negatively about them. But his strident opposition to vaccine mandates has made his position align more closely than ever with people who are anti-vaccine and those who don’t want to get shots.