Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo’s latest diatribe against COVID-19 vaccines took on a religious bent Thursday when he told far-right podcast host Steve Bannon that the inoculations are the “Antichrist of all products.”
A day after the Ron DeSantis appointee called for the end of mRNA vaccines because he believed they could harm DNA—a claim that experts have debunked—Ladapo reiterated his baseless contentions to Bannon.
“I think it probably does have some integration at some levels with the human genome,” Ladapo said on the War Room podcast, “because these vaccines are honestly—they’re the Antichrist of all products. So I think it probably does. But I’m not saying it does.”
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“I’m saying that they themselves have said you should test for it,” he said of the Food and Drug Administration. “And that hasn’t happened, and they’ve provided no proof that it’s happened. And that’s so wrong. You know, it’s just complete disrespect to the human genome and the importance of protecting it and preserving it. And that is our connection to God.”
Ladapo’s blend of vaccine skepticism and religious implications, the likes of which sprung up in early 2021 amid America’s nationwide vaccination effort, has been condemned by the FDA.
“Perpetuating references to information about residual DNA in COVID-19 vaccines without placing it within the context of the manufacturing process and the known benefits of the vaccine is misleading,” FDA spokeswoman Cherie Duvall-Jones said in a statement this week.
Many far-right influencers and pundits have mingled Christian and anti-vaccine messaging over the past few years. The idea that COVID-19 vaccines may contain the “mark of the beast”—a reference to a prophecy written in the Book of Revelation which says the Antichrist will mark impure Christians to exclude them from heaven—has gained purchase in many conservative Christian circles.
Ladapo’s other instances of dubious activities include reportedly altering the findings of a study to make it align with his anti-vaccine viewpoints, recommending against healthy children being vaccinated, and insisting that masks haven’t saved any lives.
