Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has tapped Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo to replace Dr. Scott Rivkees as the new acting Surgeon General.
During an introductory press conference in the State Capitol on Tuesday, Dr. Ladapo, who recently worked at UCLA Health in Los Angeles, California, opened his remarks by stating, “Florida will completely reject fear as a way of making policies in public health, so we are done with fear.”
Surgeon General Ladapo also said that it has been unfortunate that “fear” has “been a centerpiece of health policy in the United States ever since the beginning of the pandemic.”
“The way to approach that (pandemic) is not from a place of fear,” said Dr. Ladapo.
Ladapo echoed what Gov. DeSantis has been saying about lockdowns, adding that “after lockdowns, the overall mortality increased.”
“After lockdowns, overall mortality increased. Lockdowns are bad. Misrepresentation of science,” concluded Ladapo.
When pressed about if he and his office should promote COVID-19 vaccines, Ladapo towed the DeSantis approach to combatting the pandemic.
“The state should be promoting good health, and vaccination isn’t the only path to that,” concluded Ladapo.
Ladapo graduated from Wake Forest University and received his MD from Harvard Medical School and his PhD in Health Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
