ICYMI: Miami Herald Editorial Board Calls Out FL Surgeon General for Misinforming on Vaccines, Refusing to Wear a Mask to Meet Senator Diagnosed with Breast Cancer

In an editorial published in the Miami Herald, the newspaper’s editorial board harshly criticized the performance of Governor DeSantis’s new, hand-picked Attorney General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo. The editorial criticizes Dr. Ladapo’s misconstruing of information regarding the efficacy of the COVID vaccines and his recent refusal to wear a mask to meet Senator Tina Polsky in her office. The Senator has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Read key excerpts from the editorial below:

Miami Herald: DeSantis’ weird version of Florida has found the perfect pandemic-era surgeon general | Editorial

By the Miami Herald Editorial Board

Key Points:

  • “New state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo represents the pompousness, the wackiness and the disregard for life and community that have become the hallmarks of Florida’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
  • “During his short tenure, Ladapo has been on a rampage. He issued an order forcing schools to allow students who have been exposed to COVID and aren’t showing symptoms to attend in-person classes — even though asymptomatic people can transmit the coronavirus. Last week, he gave a speech that misconstrued the coronavirus vaccine’s efficacy.”
  • “Most recently, Ladapo refused to show simple good manners when a state senator battling breast cancer asked him to mask up in her Capitol office, the Herald reported Sunday. He even made a snarky comment on his way out, telling his aides, “Sometimes I try to reason with unreasonable people for fun,” according to what Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, told the Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau.”
  • “The Florida Senate still must confirm Ladapo’s appointment. He was in Polsky’s office to make a pitch for staying on the job, but she described him being smug during their face-off. It doesn’t look like he’s convinced her, or any Floridian who wants a return to normalcy that gives us a sense of security — for example, that other people will respect our wishes and wear a mask in our own home or workplace.”
  • “We have seen the Florida Legislative go along with every bad policy that comes from the governor’s office, but Senate leadership came to Polsky’s defense. GOP Senate President Wilton Simpson sent a note to his colleagues saying, in part, that, “It shouldn’t take a cancer diagnosis for people to respect each others’ level of comfort with social interactions during a pandemic.” We commend Simpson for this humane stance. It’s too bad that DeSantis couldn’t get off the masks-don’t-work wagon to join Simpson.”
  • “Let’s hope the Senate does its due diligence by asking Ladapo tough questions during his confirmation hearing, as requested in a letter signed by more than 100 Florida physicians concerned about his record.”
  • “He has proven he’s not worthy of the $512,000 per year he will earn along with a tenured professorship at the University of Florida.”