Florida’s Surgeon General Shows the Danger of Politicizing of Medicine
Florida state surgeon general Joseph Ladapo’s rejection of evidence-based policy stems from political rather than scientific motivations and puts innocent people at risk
Florida state surgeon general Joseph Ladapo at a press conference held by Governor Ron DeSantis on May 16, 2022, in Sanford, Fla.
NurPhoto SRL/Alamy Stock Photo
As a measles outbreak tears though Florida, the state’s surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, is openly rejecting long-proven public health practices. He is not urging vaccination against this preventable, highly contagious, dangerous disease, and he advises parents to decide whether to keep unvaccinated kids at home. This is just the latest episode in a COVID-era pattern of peddling medical misinformation and unevidenced positions. Ladapo’s tenure stands as a microcosm of the deadly politicization of public health in the U.S. and a damning indictment of what happens when those happy to misrepresent evidence rise to a position of power and responsibility.
Ladapo rose to prominence in 2020 by writing opinion articles for the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page in which he decried public health measures such as masking and lockdowns to mitigate the spread of COVID despite his lack of specialization in infectious diseases or immunology. That same year, he stood with the advocacy group America’s Frontline Doctors at a press conference in front of the Supreme Court in which the group endorsed the false claim that hydroxychloroquinecould cure COVID. Embraced by right-wing media and then president Donald Trump, this dangerous fiction was rapidly debunked by medical scientists, and Lapado later justified his appearance with America’s Frontline Doctors as supporting “individual autonomy.” With the deployment of COVID vaccines, Ladapo pivoted to casting aspersions on their efficacy and safety, just getting started on his spree of peddling…
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