DeSantis’ Controversial Pick For Surgeon General Refuses to Say if He’s Vaccinated

Florida’s Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo would not disclose his vaccination status on Tuesday when pushed by Democratic lawmakers during a confirmation hearing.

“It certainly seems like there has been a lot of questions about vaccines and there is some equivocation on your part. Is there a reason why you just can’t come out and say that you believe vaccines are a very important step for prevention,” asked Florida state Senator Tina Polsky, a Democrat.

The Associated Press reported that “Ladapo would not disclose if he has been vaccinated, saying that is private medical information.”

Ladapo reportedly added that “with the vaccines, as time goes by, the protection from infection declines” but “unfortunately, there’s been little discussion about this.”

In late January, Ladapo dodged on the question of whether or not the vaccines were effective, but eventually noted that they have “relatively high effectiveness for the prevention of hospitalization.” Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) appointed Ladapo in September to be surgeon general, but he still requires full state Senate approval to be officially confirmed.

Polsky continued to push Ladapo, who added, “I personally believe that people can make their decisions for themselves with information and I think that in some ways they probably make decisions that they’re more comfortable with if elements like coercion or misrepresentation of data or hiding of data are not part of the process.”

Ladapo and Polsky have a contentious history when it comes to Covid-19. Polsky asked Ladapo to wear a mask while meeting in her office, which he refused to do. Polsky told Ladapo at the time she had medical conduction, which he later learned was that she was undergoing breast cancer treatment.

Ladapo addressed the controversy at the time tweeting, “It is important to me to communicate clearly and effectively with people. I can’t do that when half of my face is covered.”