A.G. Gancarski
Florida’s Governor is defending a doctor whom President-elect Donald Trump tapped to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Gov. Ron DeSantis ripped The New York Times for criticisms of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. DeSantis charged that the paper is “peddling a false narrative to advance its partisan agenda” by misrepresenting the range of deaths from COVID that Bhattacharya predicted in 2020.
While Bhattacharya actually said anywhere from 20,000 to two million people could die in the pandemic, the Times stated that he predicted only 20,000 to 40,000 casualties, far short of the 1.3 million who perished from the virus.
“Anyone with a third-grade reading ability would understand this, yet the NYT clings to its lie. Must mean that the NYT is worried that Bhattacharya will clean house at the NIH. They smear what they fear,” DeSantis argued.
Upon nominating Bhattacharya last month, Trump said Bhattacharya and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “will restore the NIH to a Gold Standard of Medical Research as they examine the underlying causes of, and solutions to, America’s biggest Health challenges, including our Crisis of Chronic Illness and Disease.”
It’s clear DeSantis is thrilled with this pick. As a presidential candidate last year, DeSantis suggested that Bhattacharya would be ideal at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Governor also brought in Bhattacharya to message against vaccines and masks for children.
Last year at an event with DeSantis, the doctor blasted “lockdowns” and their “devastating” harms “to poor and working-class children from around the world.”
In 2021, Bhattacharya said masks have “marginal benefit” and “may actually cause some harm to children.”
Also that year, YouTube removed a video of another DeSantis roundtable, which included Drs. Scott Atlas, Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff. At issue: medical guidance regarding children and the necessity of masks.
YouTube spokeswoman Elena Hernandez said YouTube pulled the video because it “included content that contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities regarding the efficacy of masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
13 comments
Ron Ogden
December 16, 2024 at 1:25 pm
Once again, good job DeSantis!
Michael
December 16, 2024 at 1:36 pm
“While Bhattacharya actually said anywhere from 20,000 to two million people could die in the pandemic,…”
No, he did not say that either…..here’s the actual quote from his WSJ editorial…
‘If it’s true that the novel coronavirus would kill millions without shelter-in-place orders and quarantines, then the extraordinary measures being carried out in cities and states around the country are surely justified. But there’s little evidence to confirm that premise—and projections of the death toll could plausibly be orders of magnitude too high.”
He clearly states there’s little evidence to confirm that millions could die. So, to now say he said up to 2 million could die is shoddy and inaccurate journalism. Label your pieces as ‘editorial opinion, not fact-based journalism’ from now on.
MH/Duuuval
December 17, 2024 at 5:59 pm
Keep in mind that after the shot became available, there was a striking partisan disparity among those who didn’t get the shot, got Covid, and died and the rest of us who try to follow science..
TruthBTold
December 18, 2024 at 10:09 pm
Death rates are HIGHER among those who got the shot, and so is the incidence of COVID recurrence, per over a dozen studies released since early 2023.
The trick of counting deaths from the shot as unvaxxed deaths for 2 weeks post 2nd shot blended all of the shot deaths into the “unvaccinated, COVID-related” death pool. The medical science on mRNA shots, and antibody dependency enhancement was well know prior to the COVID mRNA shots.
MH/Duuuval
December 19, 2024 at 8:19 pm
Here’s what the CDC said in 2024: “Among older adults, mortality rates among unvaccinated persons were significantly higher than among those who had received a bivalent …”
What is the source of your contention?
ScienceBLVR
December 17, 2024 at 9:23 am
This is rich coming from Scrooge DeSantis, who installed Quack Ladapo as our “surgeon general” while denying Medicaid expansion for thise “poor and working-class children” right here in Florida
MH/Duuuval
December 18, 2024 at 10:35 am
The evangelicals and fundamentalists are getting the Biblical nation they desire, unfortunately that includes the plagues visited upon all of us.
TruthBTold
December 18, 2024 at 10:11 pm
See you are a follower of political, not empirical, science. You also seem to be racist.
MH/Duuuval
December 19, 2024 at 8:21 pm
Ladapo is just one in the long line of quacks in US medicine. His skin tone is irrelevant. Why don’t you offer readers a look at your information sources?
JD
December 19, 2024 at 9:16 pm
I do call Lapado a witch doctor, but it was not from racist intent, it was a crack at his incompetence in the medical field.
MH/Duuuval
December 20, 2024 at 6:53 pm
Ladapo is out of step with the medical establishment, which is why I prefer the term “quack”. (There is a long history of quackery in the US and Europe.)
The MAGA poster hereon FP does not deign to offer us the source of his quack ideas.
Save Florida
December 19, 2024 at 10:12 am
Florida needs a new vision focused on collective issues. Desantis needs to realize true data is fuels better decisions. The Covid dashboard was exemplary! The trail of disease and death in Florida is a lesson in mishandling a hazardous communicable disease. Due to the continued squeeze on public health funds the full story of disease spread will probably never be told. A big missed opportunity for learning and improving. Florida has one of the highest proportions of elderly and vulnerable and this administration operates from a herd immunity mentality. Basically in Florida that means let the vulnerable die . Ladapo is a policy wonk not a public health professional. He has been in ads promoting our beaches, not including anything about skin cancer prevention.
Us tax payers are paying him around $500,000. Is that responsible money management? When will this state go after polluters vs clean up technologies? Hint, some of the biggest polluters are big donors. When will developers who build in vulnerable lands carry continued financial responsibility when floods happen within 100 years? Did you know we are in the top 5 of pedestrian and bicycle accidents and deaths in the country? I’ve been told mitigation at hazardous intersections don’t happen until there is a tipping point of accidents. Does that make you feel like this State cares about our safety ?Building and traffic needs to be connected in the building approval process! Yes, A NEW VISION for the people of Florida is needed!
Cindy
December 29, 2024 at 8:38 pm
Seriously yellow fever procedure’s were more appropriate.then the handling of COVID
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