Dr. Joseph Ladapo gives poor advice
Fox News ran a story on Florida’s Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo’s, medical advice vis-à-vis the latest COVID booster. The report covered a press conference Ladapo had given while his patron, Ron DeSantis, hovered in the background. Here are some of his remarks:
"There’s a new vaccine that’s coming around the corner, a new mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, and there’s essentially no evidence for it,"
"There’s been no clinical trial done in human beings showing that it benefits people.”
"There’s been no clinical trial showing that it is a safe product for people — and not only that but then there are a lot of red flags."
In terms of specific concerns, Ladapo warned that the updated vaccines "actually cause cardiac injury in many people."
Many media outlets covered the story. However, I chose Fox because it is an organization that would report anything supporting Ladapo’s position. Yet they did not - because nothing does. For example, if you click on their link “cardiac injury” it takes you to stories on the effect of obesity, gender, salt, aspirin, et al., and heart disease — but nothing about COVID.
As for his claim about human trials, he is correct. But that is not some nefarious shortcut. It is medical protocol, as the vaccine is not a new medicine (it is a variant of an established drug). And there are millions of people already vaccinated with no significant complications or side effects.
Vaccine denialism and COVID insanity are not new positions for Lapodo. In fact, it was his medically unsound op-eds for The Wall Street Journal, starting in 2020 on the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, that initially attracted DeSantis.
Ladapo promoted unproven treatments, including hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. He also questioned the safety of vaccines and opposed lockdown and mask mandates. And despite having no expertise in infectious disease, he claimed he had "experience in treating COVID-19 patients at the UCLA Medical Center.” An experienced gainsaid by UCLA’s scheduling roster and denied by his colleagues.
As badly as Ladapo began, he finished worse. As Fox further reports:
The state surgeon general urged Floridians to make their own decisions based on their particular "resonance of truth," rather than on "very educated people telling you what you should think."
"When they try to convince you to be comfortable and agree with things that don’t feel comfortable, [that] don’t feel like things you should agree with, that is a sign, right? That’s a gift.”
Instead of relying on the new vaccines, Ladapo urged people to adopt healthy nutrition habits.
WTF is “resonance of truth”? And when Ladapo says Floridians should not listen to "very educated people telling you what you should think," he is blind to irony — as he is a very educated person (Wake Forest, Harvard Medical) telling people what to think.
Also it should be no surprise that health eating, while a good idea, has no effect on whether you catch a virus. And healthy food plus a vaccine is a far better disease fighting strategy than healthy food alone.
The current state of COVID — the good news
On May 11, the federal government declared an end to the public health emergency for COVID-19. However, the coronavirus is still prevalent. Over 100 Americans die from the disease every day. And almost 4,000 COVID victims are hospitalized.
The good news is that COVID has gone from a pandemic to being endemic, mainly due to a relatively quick rollout of various vaccines.
Initially, promises of vaccine efficacy proved to be overly optimistic. Even people vaxxed and boosted could still get the disease. Yet despite that, mortality rates among the vaccinated plunged. ERs, ICUs, and morgues became hotbeds for the unvaccinated — many of whom had relied on politicians for their medical advice. And in Florida’s case, the political science-denier-in-chief, Ron DeSantis, was abetted in his anti-vaxxer zealotry by his hand-picked Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo.
The current state of COVID — the bad news
The bad news is that the statistics on COVID-19 are ticking up. Hospital admissions have increased 29% in the last 14 days. And the percentage of deaths caused by COVID has risen by 31%. The numbers have also increased in Florida.
Not that has changed the laissez-faire philosophy of DeSantis and his medical puppet. Nationally, there is not much political appetite for the mandatory measures the pre-vaccine phase of the disease demanded. So be it. However, it is potentially fatal folly for government officials to actively dissuade citizens from taking voluntary measures to protect their health. Especially, when they base their injurious advice on lies.
Conclusion
But that is why Florida has the reputation it does. It is not that the state is unique in having poor leadership. Instead, they are more consistently dedicated to insanity at the top than other red states. Or maybe they have better PR people promoting their brand of crazy. It is almost as if they are proud of it.
By TheCriticalMind
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