One year and countless failed attempts at an actual smile ago, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis petitioned the state Supreme Court to authorize a grand jury investigation into “crimes and wrongdoing committed against Floridians related to the COVID-19 vaccine.”
From deep inside the governor’s pocket, the court granted his wish. Hillsborough County Chief Judge Christopher Sabella was tapped to oversee a year-long, statewide probe—a term that is now in its final days.
If the grand jury has unearthed any crimes against Floridians involving the vaccine, none of them have reached public attention. Sabella’s chambers did not respond to a Daily Beast inquiry as to when the court might report what, if anything, the grand jury found.
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Meanwhile, the closest thing to wrongdoing involving the lifesaving jab in Florida has been committed by DeSantis’ own surgeon general. Dr. Joseph Ladapo has been accused of altering a state-sponsored study in 2022 to make the vaccine appear a greater threat to young men than the data indicated. He cited these fudged findings when recommending that men 18 to 39 forgo the vaccine because of what he described as an “abnormally high risk of cardiac-related death among men in this age group.”
In September, Ladapo committed another act of medical malpractice when he joined DeSantis in live-streaming a call on the social media platform X, saying that the latest COVID booster has not been proven safe and that possible benefits do not outweigh the risks for anyone under 65.
“NO WAY FDA,” read a message at the start of the call.
Along with appointing Ladapo the state’s top health officer, DeSantis arranged for him to become a tenured professor at the University of Florida. The school responded to the anti-vax livestream five days later in an email to its faculty.
“The UF community is encouraged to visit the UF Health website to find vaccine locations,” the message read.
On Dec. 6, Ladapo addressed an open letter to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Mandy Cohen and Food and Drug Administration Director Dr. Robert Califf, stating as fact a falsehood that had been widely dismissed as nonsense. He claimed the COVID vaccine is contaminated with dangerous bits of DNA that can cause cancer.
On Wednesday, Cohen replied to Ladapo’s letter with a visit to a Walgreens pharmacy in Orlando.
“Floridians can hear directly from me about what the CDC is recommending and we are recommending vaccines for everyone,” she told reporters.
Back when he was first appointed, Ladapo introduced himself to Florida state Sen. Tina Polsky by refusing to wear a mask in her office despite her repeated requests that he do so because she had a health condition.
“I’ve said from day one of meeting this man, I don’t think he’s serving the public health of our state,” Polsky told The Daily Beast on Friday.
And Ladapo has repeatedly confirmed that initial impression.
“He’s the top doctor, top scientist in our state, and he pushes his conspiracy narratives,” she said. “He has lied and deleted information in scientific studies and, in my mind, he is giving us misleading information.”
In reward for his mendacity, Ladapo received a double salary. He makes $250,000 as surgeon general and another $262,000 as a professor who appears to teach no classes and performs little research. He recently purchased a $1.7 million home in Pinellas County, a four-hour drive from the surgeon general's office in Tallahassee and a two and a half-hour drive from the UF campus in Gainesville.
“So he doesn’t live in Tallahassee where his job is and he doesn’t live at UF where he’s supposedly some kind of professor,” Polsky noted.
She added, “And now he’s spending time campaigning for the governor instead of doing his job,” he said.
She was referring to news that Ladapo is scheduled to make several appearances on DeSantis’ behalf in the U.S. Virgin Islands later this month. The GOP primary there is third in the nation.
One of DeSantis’ many political calculations since 2021 was to switch from pro-jab to anti-vax. He started out so in favor of the vaccine that he staged a first shot with a 100-year-old World War II vet. He then did the same with a 94-year-old.
“In case you missed it,” the accompanying press release was headed.
When that no longer played well with the Republican base, DeSantis brought in Ladapo, who had become prominent among the loonies insisting hydroxychloroquine could cure COVID.
Now, less than a third of Floridians have received the latest booster. The national rate is 43 percent.
Polsky is most worried by the impact DeSantis and Ladapo are having on the overall rate in childhood vaccinations, which are at a 10-year low.
“If we don’t have a certain level, we lose herd immunity and some of these diseases could come back,” she said. “So to me, that is just the biggest disgrace.”
Meanwhile, just about everything Ladapo says and does regarding the job is campaigning for DeSantis.
Talk about wrongdoing.
