The doctor is in: Joseph Ladapo confirmed as Surgeon General

Image via Colin Hackley.

The Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday voted along party lines to confirm Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo despite a torrent of complaints from Democrats that he was unqualified and a “rubber stamp” for Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Ladapo’s nomination was a lightning rod from the very start, especially for those who considered him to be an extension of DeSantis’ anti-lockdown approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ladapo was publicly skeptical of both vaccines and masks.

“We can’t have the top doctor in the nation’s third largest state be a yes man for a politician,” said Democratic Sen. Jason Pizzo.

Democrats also complained that Ladapo — a Harvard-trained doctor who was working at the University of California at Los Angeles prior to his Florida appointment — lacked leadership skills, knew little about Florida, and did not appear ready to respond to potential future health emergencies.

An unnamed supervisor at UCLA told Florida state officials during a background check that Ladapo should not be appointed as Surgeon General because Ladapo based his recommendations on his opinions and not scientific evidence.

But Republicans pushed back against Democrats’ criticism and said Ladapo was highly qualified with a lengthy resume.

Sen. Aaron Bean, a Fernandina Beach Republican, acknowledged that Ladapo had a well-publicized incident in which he refused to wear a mask in the office of Sen. Tina Polsky even after she asked him to do so. Florida Politics was the first to report the incident, which became national news.

Bean called the transgression a “lapse of judgment” and said Senators should “look past one little incident.”

“This guy is the American dream,” said Sen. Keith Perry, a Gainesville Republican.

But Sen. Lori Berman recalled in 2020 when she asked Senators to reject the Governor’s first Surgeon General, Scott Rivkees. Berman said she feared Florida was on the edge of a health crisis and that Rivkees would not be prepared for the task.

“I mourn for all of our friends and neighbors who have lost mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, siblings and relatives,” she said. “The numbers are really pretty incomprehensible and it’s easy to become numb. Think about it. Florida has experienced 30 times the deaths of 9/11.”

Berman said that more than half of the state’s deaths have occurred in the last year after vaccines became readily available. “We need a state doctor that has the skills to be a public health leader,” Berman said, noting that Ladapo’s appearances before two Senate health panels showed he did not have those skills.

Pizzo noted he supported Rivkees’ confirmation in 2020 because he wanted to have leadership at the health department as the state faced the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I had frequent contact with Dr. Rivkees, but Dr. Rivkees did not have frequent contact with the public,” Pizzo said. When Rivkees spoke at a public press conference and said masks would remain a mitigation tool for at least another year he was whisked away by the DeSantis administration.

Pizzo said that Ladapo has not earned his trust or confidence because he refused to answer simple questions. He said that the Surgeon General — who oversees the Department of Health — is one of the most important in the state.