Charlie Crist wants new Surgeon General fired over new COVID-19 rules
Charlie Crist. Image via AP.

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Crist lamented a new rule allowing parents to decide whether their child quarantines after COVID-19 exposure.

It’s only Dr. Joseph Ladapo’s second day as Florida’s Surgeon General and Charlie Crist already wants him removed for what he calls a “reckless” order that leaves it up to parents whether their COVID-19-exposed child should stay home from school.

Crist hosted an online event Thursday with school officials, parents, and a teacher to decry the action, which he says is going to remove a layer of protection for the most vulnerable children, many of them who are too young to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Hiring an anti-mask, vaccine skeptic to be the state’s top doctor is another way for Gov. Ron DeSantis to go “soft on COVID,” Crist said.

He pointed out that Ladapo’s emergency rule is written so that even students who test positive for COVID-19 can go to school, as long as they have a doctor’s note. Overall, the order strips schools of the ability to tell students to stay home.

“Governor DeSantis and Dr. Ladapo are going to say it’s about a parent’s right to choose for their children,” Crist said. “But really, this is a reckless and baseless endangerment of entire classrooms and schools across the state that will jeopardize all of the work good, local leaders have done.”

Of DeSantis, whom Crist is running to replace as Governor, he said “he’s become an oppressive tyrant who now supports sending COVID-positive children into classrooms.”

“That makes no sense whatsoever,” Crist added.

Christina Pushaw, the Governor’s spokeswoman, said she’s surprised that Crist has such a low opinion of the state’s doctors that he believes any of them would write a note that would put a sick child in school.

“The rule clearly states: ‘Students will stay home if they are sick,’” she said.

Pushaw also cited a United Kingdom study on transmission in secondary schools and colleges that showed only 2% of those who had close contacts tested positive for the virus.

“It’s laughable that a career politician considers himself enough of a medical expert to assert that a Harvard-trained physician — who has published copious peer reviewed research on diseases, taught at one of the top medical schools in the world (UCLA), and has extensive experience treating hospitalized patients at the prestigious UCLA Health system in Los Angeles — is somehow unqualified to be the surgeon general of our state,” Pushaw wrote in an email. “Where did Charlie Crist get his M.D.?”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people who have been exposed to the virus stay home for 14 days. A shortened quarantine calls for people to stay home for at least seven days and return to normal activities only after they’ve had a negative test for COVID-19 on the fifth day after exposure or later.

Crist said it shouldn’t be a political issue.

“This isn’t right versus left,” Crist said. “This is right versus wrong. That’s where we are.”

Judi Hayes, a mother of a 10-year-old boy with disabilities, doesn’t want it to be her son who gets COVID-19.

“We thought we were seeing the light at the end of a tunnel,” she said. “But it turns out to be an oncoming train.”

Nine-year-old Reefy Kinder lives in Volusia County and has been through 30 surgeries. She had some words for the situation.

“I don’t understand why the Governor and the new Surgeon General, don’t care about my safety and health, or any other child’s for that matter,” said Reefy, who has had sepsis and hospital-bound flu related to her corrective surgeries. “Being at home on a computer with my mom is no way equal to being in a classroom, period.”

Anne Geggis

Anne Geggis is a South Florida journalist who began her career in Vermont and has worked at the Sun-Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal and the Gainesville Sun covering government issues, health and education. She was a member of the Sun-Sentinel team that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Parkland high school shooting. You can reach her on Twitter @AnneBoca or by emailing [email protected].


11 comments

  • Linwood

    September 23, 2021 at 4:04 pm

    The DeSantis administration will probably try to rush through an “Anti-Evacuation” law as soon as the next hurricane aims this way.

    “We support Floridians FREEDOM to drown in 14 foot storm surge”.

    • Alex

      September 23, 2021 at 4:18 pm

      Don’t give him ideas.

  • Ron Ogden

    September 23, 2021 at 5:12 pm

    “Crist lamented a new rule allowing parents to decide whether their child quarantines after COVID-19 exposure.”

    “Crist lamented. . .allowing parents to decide. . .” That’s the nut of it. He doesn’t trust parents. He wants to be the one to decide. He knows better. That is his view of the governorship.

    “What’s for dinner, mommy?”
    “Ask Charlie Crist. He’ll decide.”

    Charlie’s in heaven because he gets to decide.

    • Alex

      September 23, 2021 at 5:28 pm

      You knew your infected kid could spread it to another kid who’ll infect his family, killing their Grandma as a result.

      (You need to work on your thinking skills)

  • Tom Palmer

    September 23, 2021 at 5:34 pm

    Crist is not governor yet, If he is elected, there could be major changes.

  • Bennett Marco

    September 23, 2021 at 5:59 pm

    Once Charlie Crist is elected and starts bringing sanity back to the governance of Florida, first order of business should be to FIRE this quack and house n*gger Surgent General.

  • Michael Paris

    September 23, 2021 at 7:09 pm

    Crist is done, he is going the way of Bill Nelson. Crist has never been successful at anything except getting elected. Once in, he does nothing but spew platitudes. Oh, and Bennett Marco is a racist supporter of Crist, I hope he doesn’t hate a gay man like Charlie.

  • Ron Ogden

    September 24, 2021 at 2:22 pm

    Crist is the only American politician I have ever heard of who keeps a picture of Benedict Arnold on his nightstand.

  • Claude Kirk

    September 24, 2021 at 4:25 pm

    Charlie shame on you. How could you be so raciest to an educated Black man? BLM’s gonna come after you Charlie. Big mistake Charlie.

  • martin

    September 29, 2021 at 8:03 am

    How can this publication allow that comment by bennett marco to remain?

    I know, because it is ok for a leftist to say anything. Same with this poor online excuse of a news source.

  • Ron

    September 29, 2021 at 10:58 am

    Charlie Crist can suck a fat dick.

Comments are closed.


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