Florida’s New Surgeon General Calms COVID Fears
By Neenah Payne
GOV. DESANTIS APPOINTS DR. LADAPO AS FLA. SURGEON GENERAL(Video) – Dr. Joseph Ladapo is also going to be on the faculty at the University of Florida. Dr. Ladapo, who was born in Nigeria, is a health policy researcher and physician at the University of California-Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. He graduated from Harvard Medical School and also has a Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine. Dr. Ladapo is a signatory to the Great Barrington Declaration.
A soft-spoken scholar, Dr. Ladapo is a member of America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) whose video on July 27, 2020 in front of the US Supreme Court last year went viral (the most viral in history) until Big Tech blocked it. They came to tell America not to fear COVID because there is a proven inexpensive treatment that has worked for hundreds of thousands of Americans. In his first speech as the Surgeon General of Florida, Dr. Ladapo’s opening statement was, “We’re done with fear”. Of course, it’s fear that has driven national COVID policy since March 2020.
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See Dr. Ladapo’s résumé: curriculum vitae – joseph ladapo.doc (harvard.edu)
Introducing Dr. Joseph Ladapo
The Boston Globe says in Six things you should know about Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s new surgeon general, and his controversial views on vaccines and mandates:
Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, Florida’s new surgeon general, made waves Wednesday in the Sunshine State, inking new guidelines allowing parents to decide whether their kids should quarantine or stay in school if they’re asymptomatic following exposure to COVID-19, and he’s also spoken critically about the public health focus on vaccines as a key tool for battling the pandemic.
1] Massachusetts ties – Ladapo graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2008 and also received a separate doctorate that year in health policy from the university’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, according to a statement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office and Ladapo’s LinkedIn profile.
His national honors include the Daniel Ford Award for health services and outcomes research, and he was also a regular columnist for the Harvard Focus during medical school and residency, where he discussed his experiences on the medical wards and perspectives on health policy issues,” DeSantis’s office said. He also served as a clinical fellow in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, according to his resume.
2] Opinion writing – Ladapo hasn’t limited his opinion writing to his time in medical school. He continues to publish columns, including a piece the Wall Street Journal that ran in September 2020 under the headline, “How to Live With Covid, Not for It.” He wrote in that column, which appeared long before the emergence of the worrisome Delta variant, that many states had “weathered post-shutdown outbreaks and case counts are falling,” and that policies “forged in fear and panic have wrought tremendous damage in exchange for benefits that were attainable at a much lower cost.”
Ladapo also railed in the piece against what he said were onerous quarantine guidelines for students. “The CDC’s quarantine guidelines for healthy, low-risk students should be revisited in light of the outsize effect quarantines have on their educational experience—and the possibility of perpetual quarantining for exposed students if testing is performed frequently,” he wrote. “University policies for Covid-19 prevention also have an edge of cruelty: Many of these administrators suspending students ‘caught’ socializing would have been doing the same 30 or 40 years ago.”
3] What he signed off on in Florida – Ladapo eliminated previous mandates requiring students to quarantine for at least four days off campus if they’ve been exposed to the virus. Under the new guidelines, students who have been exposed can continue going to campus, “without restrictions or disparate treatment,” if they’re asymptomatic, They can also quarantine, but no longer than seven days, as long as they don’t get sick. As in previous guidelines, schools can require masks as long as students can opt out, though the new rules add language that opting out is “at the parent or legal guardian’s sole discretion.”
4] Controversial views on mask mandates, vaccines – The Miami Herald reported Tuesday that Ladapo had previously signed onto a document dubbed the Great Barrington Declaration, a treatise penned by three doctors who asserted that mask usage isn’t necessary, that lockdowns don’t work, and that allowing young and healthy people to get infected should be expected, as long as the vulnerable are protected. Ladapo said he signed the declaration but said there were a couple things in the document he didn’t agree with, the Herald reported. He also said Florida “should be promoting good health, and vaccination isn’t the only path for that,” the Herald reported. “It’s been treated almost like a religion, and that’s just senseless.” Ladapo added that the state should support a variety of measures for good health, including “vaccination, losing weight, exercising more [and] eating more fruits and vegetables.”
5] What the experts are saying – Some public health specialists have voiced opposition to the Florida guidelines and Ladapo’s public stances. “I’m speechless,” tweeted Dr. Uché Blackstock, founder of Advancing Health Equity, in response to the Herald article. “I attended medical school with Dr. Joseph Ladapo and to say I’m shocked by his opposition to mask and vaccine mandates is an understatement. I could have never imagined this news.”
Ladapo told the Herald that a “climate of mistrust” around the government’s response to the pandemic has fueled vaccine fears. “That was a direct result of scientists, my colleagues, some of them, taking the science and basically misrepresenting it to fit their agendas,” Ladapo told the Herald. “This idea that people don’t get to make their own decisions on issues of health is wrong and it’s not something that we’re going to be about.”
That sort of messaging has distressed many in public health, including Dr. Nida Qadir, an associate professor of medicine and associate director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Ladapo taught previously at UCLA as well. “He’s expressed a lot of strange views since the beginning of the pandemic,” Qadir tweeted. “I don’t know him personally, but it’s been especially shocking considering the state LA was in this past winter. Can’t say I’m not happy he’s leaving CA but sorry for the people of FL.”
Dr. Michael F. Ozaki, a retired pediatrician living in Southern California, was even more blunt in his assessment of Ladapo. “He is a public health danger, and must be portrayed as such,” Ozaki tweeted Tuesday. Dr. Nina L. Shapiro, an author and associate professor at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where Ladapo taught as well, tweeted that his views align ”more with #DeSantis than with @UCLAHealth.”
6] What his backers are saying – Ladapo has some high-profile supporters, including the man who tapped him for the surgeon general post, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican.“I am pleased to announce that Dr. Joseph Ladapo will lead the Florida Department of Health as our state’s next Surgeon General,” DeSantis said Tuesday in a statement. “Dr. Ladapo comes to us by way of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA with a superb background. He has had both a remarkable academic and medical career with a strong emphasis in health policy research. Dr. Ladapo will bring great leadership to the Department of Health. I would also like to thank both Dr. Scott Rivkees and Dr. Shamarial Roberson for their hard work on behalf of all Floridians.”
DeSantis’s words were echoed in the statement by Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez. “Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo is an excellent choice to serve as our next Surgeon General,” Nuñez said. “Dr. Ladapo has impeccable credentials and a strong vision to effectively serve the people of Florida at the helm of our public health agency. Through his service to our state, we will continue Florida’s work to advance our public health goals.”
Mercedes Schlapp, a political commentator who served in the administrations of Donald Trump and George W. Bush, tweeted support for Ladapo as well. “In @WSJopinion, Dr. Joseph Ladapo stated that people who have recovered from Covid 19 appear to have the most protection of all,” Schapp tweeted last week. “Yet Fauci can’t even answer a basic question on natural immunity despite the studies on it.”
Could Natural COVID Immunity be better than Vaccinated Immunity?
FAUCI STILL DENIES NATURAL IMMUNITY IS SUPERIOR (Video)
Study after study proves the strength of immunity in those previously infected by Covid is stronger to those who are vaccinated. Even CNN’s resident medical talking head, Sanjay Gupta, recently questioned Fauci on growing evidence that natural infection trumps vaccine protection.
Why Natural Immunity Is Vastly Superior To COVID Shots
Del Bigtree, host of The HighWire, demonstrated in How Del Has Been Ahead of The Curve on COVID In July in Episode 226 Ahead of The Curve (Video) that he showed last year why the COVID injections cannot compete with natural immunity in dealing with variants.
Florida Now Lets Parents Decide
New Florida surgeon general often takes contrary positions on COVID policy, treatment
“For the first year and a half of the coronavirus pandemic in Florida, it was difficult to heed the advice of Florida’s top health official — Dr. Scott Rivkees — because he rarely publicly shared his views. That won’t be a problem for Rivkees’ successor. On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis replaced Rivkees with a new surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, a UCLA researcher. Beginning with a column in USA Today in March 2020, Ladapo has widely and frequently shared his opinions on the coronavirus. In more than a dozen published columns in major newspapers, Ladapo has frequently deviated from the medical establishment consensus. In the USA Today piece at the start of the pandemic, for instance, Ladapo warned that American economic shutdowns would not stop the spread of the virus.”
“Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida’s new state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Lapado signed a new emergency rule on Wednesday aimed at keeping students in school.”
Florida’s new surgeon general opposes masks and vaccine mandates
“Dr. Lapado said there was too much emphasis on vaccines, and other health measures are important, like eating fruits and vegetables. The state of Florida appointed a new surgeon general on Tuesday who opposes mask and vaccine mandates and advocates instead for protecting individual rights over lockdowns and other COVID-19 public health responses.
“Dr. Joseph Ladapo is a Harvard-trained doctor and former UCLA researcher. He was appointed by Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis to oversee the state’s Department of Health, the lead agency combating the COVID-19 pandemic, following the resignation of Dr. Scott Rivkees, who oversaw the agency until Monday.
Lapado has written op-eds in the Wall Street Journal that express his skepticism that vaccines won’t end the pandemic, and that the “zealous” pursuit of public mask-wearing has had a ‘modest effect, at best.’ ‘This idea that people don’t get to make their own decisions on issues of health is wrong and it’s not something that we’re going to be about,’ Lapado told local media at a press conference this week.
When asked whether Florida should be promoting vaccines, the Miami Herald reported Lapado said that there was too much emphasis placed on that approach, and that the state should be supporting many measures for good health: ‘vaccination, losing weight, exercising more [and] eating more fruits and vegetables.’
Florida has a ban on mask mandates. Thirteen of Florida’s 67 school districts are currently facing financial penalties if they don’t follow a rule that says parents must be able to opt out their children from school mask mandates.
Lapado was also one of the signatories on the Great Barrington Declaration, a controversial document signed by more than 860,000 doctors and scientists, which argued for herd immunity and “focused protection” over wide-spread lockdowns.”
What we know about Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo
“In June, Ladapo co-authored an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal titled, ‘Are Covid Vaccines Riskier Than Advertised?’ which questioned the benefits of immunizing children, young adults and people who already had COVID-19. Ladapo said…too much focus has been on vaccines. ‘We support….vaccination, losing weight, exercising more, eating more fruits and vegetables, everything.'”
BANNED – AMERICA’S FRONTLINE DOCTORS SUMMIT: DR JOSEPH LADAPO – PHYSICIAN/RESEARCH (Video)
America’s Frontline Doctors Calm COVID Fears
Dr. Simone Gold, a front-line doctor and lawyer, is the founder of America’s Frontline Doctors. AFLDS held their July 27 press conference (Video) in front of the US Supreme Court last year to tell America that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is an inexpensive treatment for COVID-19 that has saved over 200,000 lives. The video of the conference (the most viral video in history) was seen by over 17 million people before Big Tech took it down.
Dr. Gold is the author of the 2000 book I Do Not Consent: My Fight Against Medical Cancel Culture. Dr. Simone Gold: I DO NOT CONSENT! shows that Dr. Gold has been consistent in her courageous leadership in the defense of science and freedom in challenging the national response to COVID-19. Dr. Gold toured the US in May and June to tell Americans not to fear COVID because there is a proven treatment that has saved hundreds of thousands of American COVID patients.
AMERICA’S FRONTLINE DOCTORS – COVID SUMMIT WITH DR. SIMONE GOLD MD, JD (Video)
AFLDS Challenge Fauci’s Ban on HCQ Treatment
Dr. Ladapo: National COVID Policy Has Been Completely Wrong
WHITE COAT SUMMIT DOCTOR DR. JOSEPH LADAPO IS NOW FLORIDA SURGEON GENERAL (Video)
Also, Mack Miller, a Republican candidate for Nevada’s lieutenant governor was seen on camera being aggressively thrown out of a local government meeting in Las Vegas.
Five Fundamental Facts National COVID “Health” Policies Ignore
The COVID-19 “vaccine” Emergency Use Authorizations overlook the following five critical facts:
1 – CDC statistics show COVID-19 poses little risk for most people.
2 – Four inexpensive proven treatments for COVID have saved hundreds of thousands of American COVID patients — making any vaccine unnecessary.
3 – The COVID injections do not meet any of the five criteria for vaccines. The shots do not to stop people from getting or transmitting COVID. Their only claim is they may lessen symptoms.
4 – There have been many serious injuries and deaths from the COVID “vaccines”. Video: VAERS shows more deaths from COVID shots in four months than from all US vaccines from mid-1997 to 2013 combined. In Stew Peters: Hospital Administrator: Lots of People Will Die – Doctors BANNED From HCQ/IVM (Video), Peters reported on September 21 that VAERS stopped counting reactions to COVID shots on September 3.
5 – Natural Immunity provides more robust and longer lasting protections than COVID shots.
Neenah Payne writes for Natural Blaze and Activist Post
