Surgeon general missing from DeSantis’ response

As COVID-19 roared back in Florida, one important name was missing from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ public schedules — the state’s surgeon general and top health official responsible for keeping tabs on the pandemic.

Dr. Scott Rivkees, who heads the Florida Department of Health, is leaving his post on Sept. 20, but he has not played a prominent role for much of the state’s COVID-19 response, including the most recent delta surge that led to record hospitalizations.

Rivkees hasn’t appeared once on DeSantis’ public schedules since July 1 when cases started rising, despite his critical position in state government, according to an Orlando Sentinel review.

Although he is an expert in pediatrics, Rivkees didn’t testify in a lawsuit on whether school districts could mandate students wear masks, and he hasn’t spoken at DeSantis’ public events or held his own as hospitalizations surged.

Dr. Bernard Ashby, who has been critical of DeSantis’ pandemic response, said Floridians should be hearing more from the person in charge of public health in Florida when the pandemic is worse than it has ever been.

“He (DeSantis) hasn’t elevated the medical professionals,” said Ashby, Florida state lead for the Committee to Protect Health Care and a Miami cardiologist. “He has been doing all the talking, all the PR. He has relegated his own surgeon general and other public health experts to a back seat role.”

DeSantis has been getting “frequent updates on the COVID-19 situation in Florida from the Department of Health,” Christina Pushaw, DeSantis’ spokesperson, wrote in an email. She didn’t know when DeSantis last met with Rivkees, but she said she would check.

As surgeon general, Rivkees plays a pivotal role in the state’s response. When Florida’s COVID-19 emergency declaration expired on June 26, the Department of Health became the primary agency charged with monitoring the pandemic. Previously, it handled that role with the Florida Division of Emergency

Management.

Rivkees was appointed surgeon general in June 2019. His resume included serving as chairman of the University of Florida College of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics and physician-in-chief at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital.

He was able to remain a tenured professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida and serve as Florida’s top public health officer through an interagency agreement. Under the agreement, the state paid

the university $140,000 a year in four quarterly installments of $35,000.

During his confirmation hearing, some legislators voiced concerns that he lacked an extensive background in public health while praising his experience in pediatrics.

Early in the pandemic, Rivkees played a more visible role. But in April 2020, Rivkees was abruptly pulled from a meeting by a DeSantis staffer when he warned that Floridians may need to socially distance for a year or maybe even longer. Since then, Rivkees has rarely been featured in public events.

A Health Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for an interview with Rivkees.

Released daily, DeSantis’ public schedules provide insight into how the governor spends his days and where he goes for input.

DeSantis spoke with hospital leaders as the pandemic worsened this summer, but they didn’t appear on

his schedule until well into the surge in cases. DeSantis held a Zoom roundtable with hospital CEOs on Aug. 4 and also spoke with Dr. Len Schleifer, the CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

He followed up with periodic conversations with hospital CEOs after the Zoom call, including discussions with the leaders of Orlando Health and AdventHealth, Central Florida’s largest hospital system.

For much of August, DeSantis has been promoting Regeneron’s antibody cocktail, which has been shown to keep people sick with COVID-19 out of the hospital. DeSantis has opened more than a dozen clinics across the state. He’s also been taking his message to Fox News, appearing on the national cable network at least eight times since July 1.

While Rivkees hasn’t been on DeSantis’ schedule, the governor has been getting input from Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor of medicine, and Martin Kulldorff, a Harvard Medical School professor. Both are controversial figures who signed the Great

Barrington Declaration, which called for letting the virus spread in the lowerrisk population with the goal of herd immunity.

Dr. Kenneth Scheppke, who holds roles with both the Department of Health and the Florida Division of Emergency Management, has been speaking at DeSantis’ news conferences on monoclonal antibody treatments. He represents the Health Department as the state EMS medical director, as well as serving as the Division of Emergency Management’s chief medical officer.

In a statement, Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communications director, praised Rivkees’ service, saying he was “integral to the state’s response to COVID-19.” His agreement with the state was extended to the “full extent of our abilities in law,” Pushaw said. Rivkees also issued a statement, thanking DeSantis “for the opportunity to serve Floridians in this incredibly vital role.”

DeSantis will now turn his attention to selecting a successor, who Pushaw said will be named in a forthcoming announcement.