Florida Governor Ron DeSantis unveiled his pick for the next surgeon general of the Sunshine State on Tuesday and it’s a doozy. The Miami Herald reports that Dr. Joseph Ladapo, an anti-mask, vaccine-skeptical, Harvard-trained researcher, is set to replace Dr. Scott Rivkees, who inexplicably faded from public view before quitting recently. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Ladapo falsely wrote that the risks of the COVID-19 vaccine “may outweigh the benefits for certain low-risk populations, such as children, young adults and people who have recovered from COVID-19.” On Tuesday, he called it “senseless” to prioritize vaccinations over everything else, adding that he prefers “personal choice” over mask or vaccine mandates and is proposing a vague strategy that will “reject fear as a way of making policies.” He said “losing weight, exercising more [and] eating more fruits and vegetables” were just as important as vaccines in fighting COVID—another totally baseless claim.
