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By Ewan Palmer
News Reporter
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A leading Florida health official referenced the atrocities carried out by doctors in concentration camps during the Holocaust at a press conference about permanently banning COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the state.
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo made the comments Wednesday while speaking to reporters alongside Governor Ron DeSantis.
Newsweek has contacted Ladapo's office and DeSantis for comment via email outside of regular office hours.
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Why It Matters
Ladapo and DeSantis have both expressed skepticism about COVID-19 vaccine mandates over the years. Health officials have voiced concerns that rising anti-vaccine sentiment across the country has contributed to a measles outbreak. Florida recently recorded its first case of the highly infectious and potentially deadly disease this year.
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What to Know
DeSantis held a press conference urging Florida lawmakers to pass legislation making it illegal for businesses and government entities to fire or refuse to hire employees based on their vaccination status, as well as a permanent ban on mRNA vaccine mandates in Florida.
DeSantis also endorsed an extension to Florida's Patient's Bill of Rights to prohibit health care providers from refusing to treat patients based on vaccination status.
During Wednesday's press conference, Ladapo criticized pediatricians who he says refuse to treat children who are not following the recommended vaccine schedule. He said this practice contradicts "informed consent," as outlined in the state's aforementioned Bill of Rights, which guarantees patients the right to information about their diagnosis and treatment.
Ladapo called the practice "unethical" and referenced the "horrific things" doctors did to Jewish people and others in Nazi concentration camps as an extreme example of how medicine and health care "needed help in the past."
Ladapo went on to say that doctors refusing to treat children based on vaccination status makes it "impossible to obtain informed consent" and described the practice as a form of "coercion" against patients and their families.
Ladapo was also asked about Florida's first confirmed measles case of the year—a student at Miami Palmetto Senior High School in Pinecrest—and what advice should be followed moving forward.
Ladapo said there may be more confirmed cases of measles in Florida but urged that parents' choices be "respected," including allowing a child to attend school if they are healthy. He added that a measles vaccine is available for "any parents who want them."
DeSantis also called on the federal government to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccinations for children.
Florida's first lady, Casey DeSantis, said it was an "utter disgrace" that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still recommends the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine for babies as young as 6 months old.
The World Health Organization has updated its recommendations since the height of the pandemic and currently lists healthy children and adolescents aged 6 months to 17 years as a "low-priority" group for COVID-19 vaccination.
What People Are Saying
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said Wednesday: "As a physician, one of the things you learn in the practice of medicine is something called informed consent. And it's a fundamental tenet of ethical practice in medicine.
"You know, we can look back at some of the horrible things that happened during World War II, for example, in concentration camps, and some of the horrific things that physicians did to poor Jewish people and other people in those concentration camps, to see that medicine and health care have needed help in the past.
"So what these pediatricians are doing when they tell parents that 'if you do not take these vaccines that are on the schedule, I will not see you or your kid in my office'—they have created a dynamic where it is impossible to obtain informed consent. It is impossible to practice ethical medicine because they are using coercion. It is unethical."
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a Wednesday post on X, formerly Twitter: "Guided by common sense and sound science, Florida has led the way in protecting patients' rights. Now is the time to secure these protections and do even more to defend medical freedom. Joseph Ladapo, Casey DeSantis, and I are calling on the Legislature to expand our Patient's Bill of Rights by prohibiting health care providers from refusing to treat patients based on vaccination status.
"We're also calling on the Legislature to make permanent Florida's ban on mRNA mandates. Let's keep Florida the beacon of freedom in health care, where the rights of all patients are enshrined in law."
Florida first lady Casey DeSantis speaking at Wednesday's press conference: "It is absolutely ridiculous and unconscionable that at this point, with what we know about the mRNA COVID vaccine—and frankly, what we don't know about the mRNA COVID vaccine—that the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] would still put this shot on their recommended vaccine list for our children. And I think that that is an utter disgrace, and I think that they need to take that down. This should be evidence-based, not agenda-driven."
The Florida Democratic Party while sharing a news report of Wednesday's press conference on X: "What do a lame duck and a quack doc have in common? They're both Republicans."
What Happens Next
The Protection from Discrimination Based on Health Care Choices bill, signed into law by DeSantis in 2023, is set to expire in June 2025 unless it is made permanent by the Florida Legislative.
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