In the News
ICYMI: Sun Sentinel Editorial Board Calls for Florida Senate to Decline to Confirm DeSantis’ New Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo
In a scathing opinion piece, the Editorial Board of the Sun Sentinel called on Florida Senators to “reject unfit, unprofessional surgeon general” Dr. Joseph Ladapo. The surgeon general must be confirmed by the Florida Senate or risk losing his job.
The Sun Sentinel editorial comes on the heels of Dr. Ladapo’s refusal to wear a mask during a visit to Senator Tina Polsky’s office last week. She had asked him to take the precaution because she had a serious medical condition. Senator Polsky received a breast cancer diagnosis in August.
Read key excerpts from the editorial below:
Sun Sentinel: Senators must reject unfit, unprofessional surgeon general | Editorial
By the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board
Key Points:
- “Gov. Ron DeSantis hired a dangerously unqualified doctor from California to be Florida’s chief health officer and surgeon general.”
- “In just a few weeks, he has scared parents, started feuds with school boards, politicized the pandemic and sent shock waves through the medical community.”
- His outlandish views would be bad enough, but he committed an unpardonable act of disrespect by arrogantly refusing to wear a face mask requested by a senator who’s waging a courageous fight against breast cancer.”
- “Ladapo’s behavior demonstrates that he’s unfit for public service. There must be consequences for that. The Florida Senate should send him packing.”
- ”The state’s chief public health officer must be confirmed by a majority of the 40-member Senate or he risks losing his job. Senate confirmation of executive branch appointees is a vital function that too often is treated casually. But Ladapo’s latest outrageous stunt — during breast cancer awareness month, by the way — should cost him a job that pays the equally outrageous sum of $512,000 a year.”
- “Ladapo acted rudely, insulted the Senate and posed a risk to a senator’s compromised immune system all at once, and things quickly went downhill. Polsky finally asked Ladapo to leave. On his way out, Ladapo was overheard by her aide saying: ‘Sometimes I try to reason with unreasonable people for fun.’”
- “Ladapo’s calculated refusal to wear a mask in the presence of a senator fighting a deadly disease reflects his hostility to reasonable COVID-19 precautions and his DeSantis-like zeal for combat and confrontation. If the crackpot doctor wants a war over masks, the Senate should give him one.”