Florida's New Surgeon General Comes Out Swinging Against COVID Mania: 'We're Done with Fear'
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has hired a new surgeon general who will allow science, measured thinking and reason to dictate how health authorities approach the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and other matters of public health.
Dr. Joseph Ladapo was introduced by DeSantis at a news briefing shortly after the doctor was also announced to be joining the faculty at the University of Florida. The governor shared some information about the doctor’s background.
“Dr. Ladapo comes with us by way of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is married; he has three children,” DeSantis said. “He was born in Nigeria and immigrated to the United States with his family when he was five. His father is a microbiologist and brought his family to the United States to continue his own studies and the apple doesn’t far fall from the tree.”
DeSantis remarked his new hire is a former Wake Forrest University decathlete who obtained his degree in medicine from Harvard Medical School, and later his doctorate in health policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. DeSantis was so proud of his state’s new surgeon general he bragged about him online:
Today, I appointed Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD as Florida Surgeon General and Secretary of the Florida Department of Health. He has a remarkable academic and medical career, and will bring great leadership to @healthyFla. Watch: https://t.co/7b3KnwIpjI
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) September 21, 2021
Those who might not have been impressed by his resume are sure to be stunned by how intact his mind and heart are.
Ladapo, a UCLA medical professor who opposes forcing people to wear masks and take COVID vaccines, had a clear message for all who were listening. In accepting his new position, he shared a message that surely tested the limits Democratic Party and establishment media’s terror machine: Fear will not be taken into account as long as he’s making the decisions.
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“Florida will completely reject fear as a way of making policies,” Ladapo told reporters in Tallahassee.
He added bluntly: “So, we’re done with fear.”
Ladapo continued saying that fear has been a “centerpiece of health policy in the United States, ever since the beginning of the pandemic.”
“It’s over here,” he said. “Expiration date: It’s done.”
Ron DeSantis just made Dr. Ladapo the new Surgeon General in Florida. Watch this and you’ll wish he was in charge of COVID policy for the United States.
“Florida will completely reject fear as a way of making policies”
This is the Doctor America needs!pic.twitter.com/3Ixi8KxxLx
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 22, 2021
“We’re compassionate, we get it, you know, there are scary things — we’ve seen a lot of fear from COVID over the past almost past year and a half, and it’s very understandable. But the way to approach that is not from a place of fear, because it doesn’t lead to good decisions,” he said.
“We’ve seen a lot of that, where the risks and benefits of decisions haven’t been considered, wholly or thoughtfully, so that’s over here,” he added. “In terms of our approach, you know, we are going to have a positive approach. We’re going to acknowledge the fact that there are some things that are scary, but that’s not the only thing.”
DeSantis, a model governor in an age of big government insanity, has hit another home run. Ladapo is not a man of fear. He’s a man of reason, and he will react to evolving situations based on logic and not impulse.
Of course, the establishment media is already smearing Ladapo with predictable headlines. Newsweek, for example, shared news of the doctor’s hiring by connecting him to African Dr. Stella Immanuel, who last year was excoriated by the cynical corporate media for things she’d said in her ministry in Texas.
“Ron DeSantis’ New Surgeon General Appeared in ‘Demon Sperm’ Doctor’s COVID Conspiracy Video,” the outlet claimed through a misleading headline. How is Ladapo connected to Immanuel? Both last year appeared in a video — along with a lot of other doctors — which championed personal choice and challenged mask mandates over efficacy concerns.
The doctors also touted some common medicines as a potential way to treat cases of the coronavirus. Of course, anyone who goes against the grain in the era of COVID, cancel culture and intrusive mandates will be slung with mud. The fact that the establishment media can’t stand Ladapo is a pretty important data point. It means he’s probably the right man for the job.
We know he’s already challenged the notion that fear should drive policy. In an era where pandemonium brought on by words from people such as Dr. Anthony Fauci too often prevails, that’s refreshing. Florida is ushering in a new day with regard to public health.
The state is bolstering an already rock-star-leadership cast with a man who is supremely qualified to be the state’s top doctor.
Perhaps other states will follow. It would be nice to see public policy derive from something other than capitulation to anxiety.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
