During his second confirmation hearing Tuesday, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo dodged questions about howmuch time he’s been spendingat the University of Florida where he also works, his plan for promoting boostersand his association with a "fringe medical group."
He also refused, again, to say whether he has been vaccinated, calling it a private medical matter.
Those were posed to him by Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, who had first crack at questioning and remained his chief interrogatorof the Harvard-educated research doctor from the University of California Los Angeles before the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee.
Polsky is the same senator he snubbed several months ago by declining to wear a mask in her office at her request; she had recently begun cancer treatment.
But, unlike Senate DemocraticLeader Lauren Book did at the first hearing, Polsky did not ask foran apology. Instead she saved her dig at Ladapo for her closing remarks, after a lengthy hour-long extra inning of grilling before the Ethics and Elections Committee voted 5-4 Tuesday night to recommend his confirmation.
"We’re in the middle of a pandemic," Polsky said, sizing upa nominee who "was not recommended by his former supervisor; is part of a right-wing, fringe medical group who has turned his position into a political one; who isdubious about vaccines and thinks masks are useless — even when requested by someone to wear one."
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Ladapo was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in September to replace Dr. Scott Rivkees as the state's surgeon general. Healso serves as head of the Department of Health. His appointment must be confirmed by the full Senate.
Earlier, Polsky asked Ladapo what he knew about America’s Frontline Doctors, a group Ladapo associated with while at UCLA. In July2020, he stood on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court with several other members of the organization, championing hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as treatments against COVID-19.
When he said he couldn’t answer accurately, she asked, “Why would you speak with them if you don't know what they do?”
After attempting to distance himself from the group Ladapo conceded that its members were friends and colleagues."Ididn't say I didn't know much about the organization,” he said. “I know many things about them but don't feel qualified to talk as a representative.”
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The committeewent into recess after a half-hour of questioning as it ran out of its scheduled time. Committee members returned after 6 p.m. and hammered Ladapo with one fault-finding question after another over his views on masks, testing, herd immunity and vaccinations.
During one exchange, Polsky accused Ladapo of equivocating instead of givingyes-or-no answers to questions about the efficacy of vaccines."Why can't you come out and say vaccines work?" she asked.
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Sen. Doug Broxson, R-Gulf Breeze, commended Ladapo for his patience putting up with what he said amounted to a "hazing and badgering" with a lot of "suspicious" questions. Broxson added he believed Ladapo was just the right person to lead Florida through the COVID pandemic.
Even the committee chair, Sen. Dennis Baxley, broke his otherwise calm composure as he exhorted his Democratic colleagues to "focus on him and our objective of whether we can vote for him, rather than medical cross examinations."
But when Broxson made a motion to recommend confirmation, Polsky asked for debate, and Baxley granted it.
"I don't think we have spent an excessive amount of time discussing a life and death issue," said Sen. Lori Berman, D-Delray Beach, who asked several non-COVID questions about health disparities, HIV in Florida, and lack of access to care for the uninsured.
Ultimately, Berman said, Ladapo was "spectacularly unqualified" with no vision for how to move the state forward on those issues.
UF work under the microscope
Another key concern was the amount of time Ladapo would be spending at his second job as a research professor at UF.
“I couldn’t answer in terms of how much time I spend,” he answered, and instead talked about how much time he spends raising his three sons, trying to be a good husband, conducting research and running the Department of Health. “I don’t get a lot of sleep as a result.”
Asked to name one clinical trial he was conducting, Ladapo said all his clinical trials are listed online. Pressed to explain how he was earning his six-figure salary at a public university, he mentioned a weight loss trial he started at UCLA and has been conducting for several years.
Like his predecessor, Ladapo works part-time at the University of Florida College of Medicine as a clinical researcher. He makes a combined income of $437,000 a year, with just under $200,000 of that coming from UF.
Under his contract, Ladapo is supposed to spend 20% of his time conducting research and clinical trials at UF College of Medicine. He also was supposed to transfer his grants from National Institutes for Health and Robert Woods Johnson to UF.
“Dr. Ladapo has been in contact with the UF College of Medicine and UF Health leadership about the details of his faculty appointment, continuing the onboarding process,” UFHealth spokesman William Levesque said in an email.“The transition of faculty joining the university from another institution is often complex and takes time.”
Ladapo visited the campus two weeks ago to meet with the UF Health Cancer Center’s tobacco cessation working group, Levesque said. “His next trip to campus is still being organized and we do not yet have a date scheduled.”
Several questions were directed at testing Ladapo on his role as the head of the Department of Health, andwhether he had a plan for promoting booster shots since initial vaccinations lose their effectiveness over time.
“In terms of our approach to sharing information with the public about vaccines and boosters, we have focused on education and access,” Ladapo said. “It is easy for people to log into our website and find locations for boosters.”
He also said that about 40% of adolescents to upwards of 90% ofseniors have received their initial vaccinations and about 40% total have received a booster shot.
“It sounds like you are taking a laissez-faire approach to boosters,” Polsky said, askingwhy he isn’t taking a more proactive approach.
Again, Ladapo emphasized the educational approach of the department: “Providing that information is the basis of our strategy rather than taking more coercive measures to promote a public health goal.”
Jeffrey Schweers is a capital bureau reporter for USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida. Contact Schweers at jschweers@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @jeffschweers.
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