Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s top health official are directly contradicting federal health recommendations, saying there’s not enough evidence a new COVID booster provides benefits that outweigh risks.
DeSantis and Florida Surgeon Joseph Ladapo discussed the vaccine with doctors on a Zoom call livestreamed on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. It repeated much of what they said a week ago during a live event in Jacksonville, in which they warned against the vaccine the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended this week.
“This has obviously been a flashpoint in our society,” DeSantis said Wednesday. “In Florida, we've obviously taken a different approach.”
The discussion began with the words “NO WAY FDA” on the screen before DeSantis introduced the doctors.
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“We continue to live in world where the CDC and the FDA, when it comes to COVID at least, are just beating their own path in a direction that's inexplicable in terms of thinking about data and in thinking about common sense,” Ladapo said.
Ladapo’s previous warnings against COVID-19 vaccines prompted a public letter from federal health agencies saying his claims were harmful to the public. The FDA and CDC sent the letter in March to Ladapo, a DeSantis appointee who has attracted national scrutiny over his close alignment with the governor in opposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other health policies embraced by the federal government.
Ladapo received his medical degree and a Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard University. He was a doctor and health policy researcher at UCLA when DeSantis appointed him in September 2021. He since has attracted national scrutiny over his close alignment with the governor in opposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other health policies embraced by the federal government.
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In his two years in Florida, Democrats have criticized his guidance on COVID-19, including his refusal to say whether he received a vaccine. At the height of the pandemic, Ladapo refused to wear a mask during a meeting with a Democratic senator who was undergoing cancer treatment. Senate Democrats later stormed out of a confirmation hearing after accusing Ladapo of being evasive.
