“Those students should have been comfortable wearing a mask,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on MSNBC. “It is absolutely their choice.”

Her comments come one day after the Republican governor told the group of students, who were standing behind the podium where he was set to speak at the University of South Florida: “You do not have to wear those masks, I mean please take them off.”

“Honestly, it’s not doing anything, we’ve gotta stop with this Covid theater. So, if you want to wear it, fine. But this is ridiculous,” DeSantis had said on Wednesday. Some of the students took off their masks while others left them on.