While local governments in Miami-Dade and Broward counties rush to open more testing sites to alleviate long lines, Florida’s controversial Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is making national headlines for advising against tests.
Ladapo defied worldwide scientific conventional wisdom Monday by suggesting that too many people were getting tested for COVID-19.
In an attempt to politicize the issue, Ladapo blamed the push by residents to get tested on a “psychology” he says was fostered by federal health authorities.
Ladapo also said during a press conference that the Florida Department of Health was going to work on its own guidelines on who should get tested, and he hinted that those guidelines would emphasize testing for those most vulnerable for serious illness and death, such as the elderly, and not those who are younger.
“My department’s goal is going to be to put out testing that doesn’t restrict access to testing, but reduces the use of low-value testing and prioritizes high-value testing,” Ladapo said. “And what do we mean by that? High-value testing is testing that is likely to change outcomes. So if your grandmother gets a test, that’s a much more valuable test than the 8-year-old third-graders Los Angeles County is sending in to get weekly testing, right? The first one is much more likely to change outcomes. So, we are going to be putting out guidance that puts more emphasis on that. And, so, we are going to be working to unwind the testing psychology that our federal leadership has managed to, unfortunately, get most of the country in over the last two years.”
Ladapo did not say exactly when those new guidelines would be released, but stressed that testing shouldn’t be foremost on peoples’ minds.
“It’s really time for people to be living,” Ladapo said. “To make the decisions they want regarding vaccination and to enjoy the fact that many people have natural immunity and to unwind this preoccupation with only COVID as determining the boundaries and constraints and possibilities of life.”
Natural immunity has been debunked by the experts after studies have shown people who have recovered from a bout with COVID are far more likely to become reinfected if not vaccinated. People who are vaccinated and boosted have the largest amount of immunity against infection and serious disease.
Testing is widely recognized as the best way to identify the infected to prevent further spread, something Ladapo doesn't seem to be very concerned with. He was hired by Gov. Ron DeSantis in September 2021 and has been an outspoken critic of both mask and vaccine mandates.
His confirmation remains an open question after a much-publicized incident in October where he was asked to leave the office of State Sen. Tina Polsky, who has breast cancer, because he refused to wear a mask.