Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s confirmation to a second term in that office is headed to the state Senate floor, despite Democratic objections that he has politicized public health policy in Florida.
The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee voted 6-3 along party lines Monday to let Dr. Ladapo remain as top administrator of the Florida Department of Health, where he has supported Gov. Ron DeSantis’ hostility to public health measures including wearing face masks and vaccinations against COVID-19. He’d already cleared his only other committee vote.
To Democrat Tina Polsky, who represents parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties, Dr. Ladapo’s own opposition to those policies, and particularly his promulgation of a DOH study warning young men against getting the mRNA vaccines against COVID, disqualify him.
“It was chosen for us that we would have a politician in this position and that, to me, is what he has become,” she said.
“I don’t deny his excellent education and what he’s done as a doctor, but this is the wrong position.”
Republicans including Debbie Mayfield of Brevard County, however, praised Ladapo’s “courage.”
“I don’t think you are political. I think that’s obvious from, you know, the way you’re answering questions and what you’re doing. You’re probably just as far from the political scene as I can imagine,” she said.
‘What’s best for my kids’
“I believe you answered thoroughly and to the best of your ability, and so I appreciate you doing that, bringing your expertise to the state of Florida,” committee chairman Danny Burgess, representing parts of Hillsborough and Pasco counties, said.
“I know you have little kids as well, and so this has been a challenging time for us all, and, you know, I believe that you look through at what you do in the role of surgeon general through the lens of what’s best for my kids and children across the state of Florida,” Burgess said.
Polsky dominated Ladapo’s portion of Monday’s committee meeting, which decided scores of Senate legislative confirmations before the panel, with questions about Ladapo’s policies. For example, regarding a ban on transgender care for minors pending before the Legislature, she got him to concede that minors already undergoing gender-confirming treatments should be allowed to continue under the care of their doctors, given the potential ill effects of going off their medicine.
Polsky also reminded her colleagues that in 2021, while up for confirmation for the first time, Ladapo refused her request that he wear a mask during a meeting in her office while she was undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer. She would have had to suspend those treatments had she contracted COVID, she explained.
“And then never apologized, never one checked up on me — by the way, I’m cancer-free, thank you for checking up on me,” Polsky said.
“And so, I’m scared for my life and for getting the right treatment. And when he walked out of my office, he said something like, Oh, I love to get those libs going and to upset them.”
‘This is the top doctor in our state’
“This is the top doctor in our state. And the way he treated me is so symbolic of who he is and how he treats all, in my opinion, all of our public health crisis, Polsky said. “And God forbid we have another pandemic or another situation when he is there. I do not believe that he will take our health into consideration over politics or just being contrary. Because that seems to be what it’s all about.”
Republican Bryan Avila of Miami-Dade County noted that Ladapo revived a man who suffered a heart attack outside the Capitol in March and saved his life.
“You responded, and that individual in their comments from everything that I saw, that I read, could not have been any more grateful for you being there at the right place at the right time to help him. That individual called you an angel. I just wanted to thank you for that,” Avila said.
Jonathan Martin of Lee County praised Ladapo for opposing mask mandates like the ones imposed on his 1-year-old during airline flights and at Disney World.
“I can’t think of anything more cruel than masking little kids. Thank you for actually using your brain, like many doctors have done, but also, what’s rare, is using your heart and having courage to speak out about what you know to be true,” Martin said.
‘Suffered tremendously’
“There are many people who have suffered tremendously because of arbitrary and frankly ridiculous rules that were put in place by what we call public-health professionals all over the world. It couldn’t have been easy and you don’t deserve anything but our praise and thanks for what you’ve done these last few years,” Martin said.
Regarding that DOH study, it purported to find an increased risk of myocarditis among men aged 18 to 49 who’d taken COVID shots, but other public-health experts complained that the non-peer-reviewed study relied on shaky methodology and underplayed the risk from COVID, itself. Ladapo acknowledged Monday that viruses can cause myocarditis.
Additionally, the Tampa Bay Times has reported that the final report omitted data, contained in earlier drafts, the danger of cardiac-related death from getting COVID itself was much worse than from getting the vaccine. The newspaper obtained the drafts through public-records requests.
“This is a man who has created a false study, that his peers, equal professors at the University of Florida, said were unmeritorious, non-peer-reviewed, false. There was reporting of lack of data, false data, put into the study. He’s trying to scare everyone about myocarditis, and yet he even said it can be caused by viruses, and COVID being one of those, but it certainly existed before we ever heard of COVID.
Here’s a more complete analysis of that study’s alleged flaws.
This article originally appeared in florida phoenix
