Florida surgeon general defiles his duty

In a stunning letter to federal health officials and subsequent statement released to the public, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo raised the frightening but evidence-free prospect of covid mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna contaminating human DNA.

His irresponsible attacks come as the nation is experiencing yet another wave of infection.

It fortunately does not seem like Dr. Ladapo has any real power to actually block the use of the vaccine, and is limited to grandstanding and issuing recommendations. But it would be a mistake to wave off his culture-war-inflected medical misinformation as just another annoying but somewhat pointless display of contemporary right-wing demagoguery.

Ladapo is not an Internet troll or local political candidate vying for attention. He is a top state medical official, responsible for the public health of 22 million Floridians.

In Ron DeSantis’ Florida, Ladapo was handpicked specifically to mislead the public in this way after gaining national prominence as a covid vaccine skeptic, and fabricating results was just part of the job.

People around the country and around the world who already feel conspiratorially motivated to question immunizations can seize on the doctor’s pseudo-scientific babble, widely disparaged by experts, as evidence that their suspicions are correct. This works part and parcel with kooks like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’ve been on the anti-vaccine train for years before unfortunately finding more widespread appeal during the backlash to covid countermeasures.