Florida’s surgeon general says not to get the COVID vaccine. That’s why I got mine.
Staking out an outlier position over vaccines is center to Ladapo’s employment in Florida. He was hired three years ago by Gov. Ron DeSantis despite a warning from Ladapo’s former supervisor.
I got my COVID-19 booster this week.
Thank you, Florida Surgeon Gen. Joseph Ladapo.
One of the advantages of having a dangerously reckless medical outlier installed as the chief medical officer of your state is that when he urges you to do something, it’s a helpful reminder to consider doing the opposite to protect your health.
Lately, Ladapo has issued “updated guidance” from the Florida Department of Health on the newly available COVID-19 boosters, guidance that urges Floridians of all ages not to be vaccinated.
It’s a warmed-over version of some of his widely-discredited greatest hits.
“The most recent booster approval was granted in the absence of booster-specific clinical trial data performed in humans …” the guidance says. “There are currently limited data to inform whether these boosters offer any substantial protection against the virus and subsequent circulating variants.”
It goes on to stress extremely rare side effects, while failing to mention the life-saving record of the vaccinations, the relatively high rate of COVID infections in Florida now, and the nearly 100,000 mostly-unvaccinated Floridians who have died from the virus.
Instead, Ladapo advises both young and old to avoid the vaccines.
“Based on the high rate of global immunity and currently available data, the State Surgeon General advises against the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines,” the advisory says in bold type. “Any provider concerned about the health risks associated with COVID-19 for patients over the age of 65 or with underlying health conditions should prioritize patient access to non-mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and treatment.”
Sorry, Gov. DeSantis. Count me out of your Florida death cult. I got the COVID vax again.
The FDA’s guidance tells a different story about the new boosters, saying they’ve been designed to “more closely target currently circulating variants and provide better protections against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death.”
Staking out an outlier position over vaccines is center to Ladapo’s employment in Florida. He was hired three years ago by Gov. Ron DeSantis despite a warning from Ladapo’s former supervisor that he was a political actor who based his policy decisions on opinions rather than scientific evidence.
His anti-vax quackery in Florida has been well documented, and at times it has leaned heavily on a slap-dash, deceptively manipulated study he issued through the Florida Department of Health that was neither peer reviewed, nor published in a medical journal.
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DeSantis brought in Ladapo during the COVID-19 epidemic in order to stake out the governor’s anti-vax “Don’t Fauci My Florida” presidential campaign strategy.
This led to calling life-saving vaccines “jabs”, offering $5,000 relocation bonuses for unvaccinated law enforcement officers from other states, and recklessly causing 16,235 avoidable deaths in the state from the virus during one eight-month period, a study from The Lancet medical journal found.
So, it’s no wonder that national health experts have taken a dim view on Ladapo’s latest health-advisory stunt.
“I cannot understand the motivation to denigrate vaccines or attempt to dismantle our hard-fought vaccine infrastructure,” wrote Dr. Peter Hotez, the founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College and an internationally-recognized scientist on vaccine development. “I don’t care about their political views. That’s their right as a U.S. citizen. But to actively sabotage science/public health for political gain?”
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Earlier this year, the heads of the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advised Ladapo in a letter that his claims about the dangers and lack of effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines were “incorrect, misleading and could be harmful to the American public.”
So to be a responsible, adult-acting Floridian these days, it helps to learn how to interpret health advisories from the state.
Which is why I filter whatever Ladapo says through what I like to think of as a DeSantisizer to determine what I ought to be doing to protect my health.
So, thank you, Florida Surgeon Gen. Joseph Ladapo, for once again showing us the (opposite) way.
Frank Cerabino is a news columnist with The Palm Beach Post, which is part of the Gannett Newspapers chain.