Joseph Ladapo

Around early 2020, Ladapo began to write op-eds for The Wall Street Journal on the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, notwithstanding a lack of specialization in infectious diseases, and gained prominence as a skeptic of mainstream consensus on prevention and treatment.[4] In these columns, Ladapo promoted unproven treatments including hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, questioned the safety of vaccines, and opposed lockdown and mask mandates deriving from his "experience in treating COVID-19 patients at University of California, Los Angeles."[4][6][15][7][16] However, UCLA's staff scheduling roster did not have him assigned to treat any COVID-19 patients, and several of his colleagues said he had never treated any COVID-19 patient.[17][18] Later that year, Ladapo signed the Great Barrington Declaration, which argued for reaching COVID-19 herd immunity by the fringe notion of "focused protection", where the less vulnerable people were allowed to be infected.[16]

Ladapo's op-eds caught the interest of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.[16][4] On September 21, 2021, he was appointed the Surgeon General of the state, replacing Scott Rivkees, pending confirmation by the Florida Senate. Simultaneously, he was appointed an associate professor at the University of Florida Health in a fast-tracked hiring process initiated after the Board of Trustees chair — a DeSantis advisor — presented his resume before the UF Health president.[19] Faculty members have since alleged that university administrators suppressed information about Ladapo's views on COVID-19 before the vote on his tenure.[20]

On appointment, Ladapo said he would move Florida public health away from a fear-based and “senseless” over-focus on mandating vaccines and toward medical choice and a focus on total health and numerous interventions to achieve it.[13] He repealed quarantine rules for schoolchildren exposed to COVID-19 as his first executive action.[15] The following month, Ladapo refused to wear a mask while meeting State Senator Tina Polsky, who was set to undergo radiation therapy;[21] he defended his actions on the ground that masking hindered effective communication.[22] The Senate confirmed Ladapo on February 23, 2022; during background checks, his former UCLA supervisor refused a positive recommendation and said that Ladapo's "hands-off" approach towards tackling COVID-19 had not only distressed colleagues but also violated the Hippocratic oath.[23][24][25]

In March 2022, Ladapo recommended that healthy children in Florida not be vaccinated against COVID-19; thus, Florida became the first state to contradict relevant guidelines by the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics.[26][27] Experts cited by Ladapo disagreed with his stance and accused him of cherry-picking their work.[28] In October 2022, Ladapo cited an anonymous non-peer-reviewed analysis — claiming high cases of cardiac-related deaths among men who took mRNA COVID-19 vaccines — to suggest that men aged 18 to 39 not be vaccinated.[29][4] Medical professionals rejected his analysis as methodologically flawed and unscientific; David Gorski stated that it was the first time in American history that a "state government weaponized bad science to spread anti-vaccine disinformation as official policy."[30][31] In January 2023, the Faculty Council of the University of Florida College of Medicine concluded upon an investigation that Ladapo's recommendation was based on "careless and contentious research practice" and might have violated the university policies on research integrity.[32] An April 2023 article in Politico found that Ladapo had altered a study on COVID vaccines conducted by the state by replacing language suggesting the vaccines posed no significant risks for young men with the aforementioned language suggesting men 18-39 not be vaccinated.[33]

Across 2022, Ladapo has also focused on opposing transgender health care, accusing professional organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society of being politically motivated to support such causes. He opposes gender-affirming care and counseling, hormonal therapies, related medications for transgender and nonbinary children and teenagers, and social-transition tools such as pronoun and name changes.[8][9][10]

On March 10, 2023, Ladapo was publicly rebuked by the CDC and FDA for disseminating vaccine misinformation in response to a letter he wrote to the agencies which had misinterpreted data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).[34]