Here in the United States, hospitalizations have fallen far below January’s record highs, but nearly 1,500 people a day continue to die of COVID-19, on average, each day. In Florida, Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo on Monday shrugged off advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that children get vaccinated.
Dr. Joseph Ladapo: “The Florida Department of Health is going to be the first state to officially recommend against the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children.”
Dr. Ladapo is an anti-mask vaccine skeptic and a proponent of the widely discredited theory of achieving herd immunity through natural infection, which Dr. Anthony Fauci has called “nonsense and very dangerous.” He was appointed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who last week bullied high school students for wearing masks as they stood behind his lectern at a public event.
Gov. Ron DeSantis: “You do not have to wear those masks. I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything, and we’ve got to stop with this COVID theater. So, if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous.”
DeSantis has refused to apologize, and his campaign is using the incident to raise funds. Meanwhile, the mother of one of the teenagers whom he told to take off his mask is immunocompromised and has spoken out.