The DeSantis variant
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Florida’s top public health official is an anti-vaxxer committed to the “principle” that individual consumer preference is more important than public health:
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a new surgeon general for Florida on Tuesday, a Harvard-trained doctor who advocated for an approach to the coronavirus pandemic that emphasizes protecting individual rights over community-based precautions.
Dr. Joseph Ladapo, a UCLA researcher who expressed skepticism of vaccines to end the pandemic, said Tuesday that he would “reject fear” as a public health strategy.
“Florida will completely reject fear as a way of making policies,” Ladapo said. “That’s been something that’s been unfortunately a centerpiece of health policies.”
[…]
When asked whether the state should be promoting vaccines on Tuesday, Ladapo replied that too much emphasis had been placed on vaccines.
“The state should be promoting good health, and vaccination isn’t the only path for that,” Ladapo said. “It’s been treated almost like a religion, and that’s just senseless.”
He said the state should be supporting many measures for good health: “vaccination, losing weight, exercising more [and] eating more fruits and vegetables.”
Paul has already dealt with the “why bother with a vaccine when you can just lose weight” argument at length, but Jesus Christ.
I hope historians have bookmarked the ridiculous Times article about how Florida’s COVID surge was inexplicable given DeSeantis’s “strong push” for vaccination, which is almost as good a How He Got Here landmark as the EMAILS! saga.