Surgeon General Joe Ladapo is currently meeting with Senators ahead of the session that will determine whether or not he will serve as Florida’s Surgeon General. However, over the weekend, the controversial political figure was asked by state Senator Tina Polsky (D) to leave her office after he was asked to wear a mask, and he didn’t. In turn, the Florida lawmaker detailed her experience during the meeting, criticizing the Health official for not complying with wearing a mask and for calling her “unreasonable.”
State Senator Polsky was recently diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer, and she is set to undergo radiation therapy to combat cancer. Because of this, during her meeting with Ladapo, he was asked to wear a mask. Not doing so, he suggested they go outside, but the Florida Democrat responses that she didn’t “want to go outside.”
After engaging in a back-and-forth on the subject, she asked Ladapo if there was a reason why he didn’t want to wear a mask, and she informed that he provided no response. “He just smiles and doesn’t answer,” she said, adding that “he’s very smug.”
As a result, he was asked to leave her office, and he is alleged to have responded with “sometimes I try to reason with unreasonable people for fun.”
Since Ladapo was unveiled as the next pick for Florida’s Surgeon General position, the political figure has been marred by controversy over his views regarding the COVID-19 virus, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and vaccine passports.
However, his comments in question are now being disputed by Weesam Khoury, a Department of Health spokesperson who confirmed that the meeting took place but that Ladapo did not direct those comments at Polsky.
“Dr. Ladapo is committed to meeting with members of the Legislature regardless of their party affiliation to discuss policy, even when they do not agree on the subject at hand,” Khoury commented in an email to Florida Politics.
“Meetings between highly regarded and intelligent, elected and appointed officials happen all the time, and it is disappointing you don’t hear about them more – but it is probably because the only time they get reported is when a genuine meeting turns into a media headline expected from a gossip column,” Khoury added.
In the end, Khoury expressed sadness at Polsky’s diagnosis while also expressing it on behalf of Dr. Ladapo, and Polsky expressed disappointment at the meeting not taking place.
“I really wanted to interview him,” Polski lamented, adding that it “was unfortunate that I didn’t. but I felt really uncomfortable.”
