Tallahassee, FL — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis and newly-confirmed Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo convened a panel of extremist ‘doctors’ to broadcast COVID-19 misinformation. At the event, Dr. Ladapo and Governor DeSantis announced that the new recommendation in Florida is for children to NOT be vaccinated against COVID-19––despite the vaccine’s proven efficacy and endorsement by the entire medical community.
In response, Coronavirus War Room Florida director Ashley Bauman issued the following statement:
“Just a week after publicly insulting children for wearing masks, Governor DeSantis is now tripling down by arguing against vaccines, doing everything apparently in his power to make the COVID-19 pandemic last as long as possible in Florida. His panel today featured a handful of so-called ‘doctors’ who have argued against the vaccines, against masks, and for the already-proven-wrong herd immunity strategy. By refusing to listen to the larger medical community and instead to a hand-picked handful of quack doctors from across the world, DeSantis has made clear he plans to continue to make Florida’s recovery a partisan fight.”
Details about each of the doctors below:
Jay Bhattacharya
Jay Bhattacharya is an epidemiologist and professor at Stanford University Medical School who has publicly disagreed with mainstream public safety guidance during the pandemic. Bhattacharya is a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, released in fall of 2020, which recommended that public health authorities allow COVID-19 to spread rampantly throughout the American public in order to achieve herd immunity. The scientific community quickly condemned the plan, calling it “a dangerous fallacy unsupported by scientific evidence…Any pandemic management strategy relying upon immunity from natural infections for COVID-19 is flawed.”
Martin Kulldorff
Martin Kulldorff is an epidemiologist and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital who has been a vocal opponent of basic public health measures. In September of 2020 he co-authored a Wall Street Journal opinion piece urging an end to testing for asymptomatic infection and is a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration. He even appeared on the Richie Allen Show, a podcast described as an “online platform for antisemitic conspiracy theorists and Holocaust deniers” to push his dangerous pre-vaccination herd immunity agenda.
Sunetra Gupta
Sunetra Gupta is an epidemiologist and professor at Oxford University who is a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration. As the pandemic was still raging in March of 2021, Gupta publicly opposed masking, testing and tracing, physical distancing, and mass vaccination. An Open Democracy investigation found Gupta accepted £90,000 from conservative party billionaire donor, Georg von Opel, through his foundation. Gupta advised British Prime Minister Boris Johnson against lockdowns in the fall of 2020.
Robert Malone
Robert Malone, an infectious disease researcher who has falsely claimed to be an inventor of the mRNA vaccines. Despite having received two doses of the Moderna vaccine, Malone has spread rampant disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, claiming vaccinated individuals were a danger to the unvaccinated and for every three lives the vaccines saved, they caused two deaths. These actions resulted in Malone being banned from Twitter.
Harvey Risch
Harvey Risch attended a January 2022 event hosted by Senator Ron Johnson where he claimed, “Early hydroxychloroquine use dramatically reduces the risk of hospitalization and death…This is scientific proof.” The FDA has determined that hydroxychloroquine is not proven to be safe or effective for the treatment of COVID-19, stating concerns over “serious heart rhythm problems…blood and lymph system disorders, kidney injuries, and liver problems and failure.” In 2022, the FDA doubled down on their 2020 warning stating, “hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have not been shown to be safe and effective for treating or preventing COVID-19.”
Tracy Hoeg
Tracy Hoeg is a physician and epidemiologist who has been outspoken about COVID-19 safety measures and vaccinations. In May of 2021, she co-authored an op-ed that called for children to “return to their normal lives this summer and in the upcoming school year, without masks and regardless of their vaccination status.” Hoeg also led the research of a study suggesting boys between 12 and 17 without medical comorbidities were “more likely to develop a cardiac adverse event (CAE) that requires hospitalization following vaccination with either Pfizer or Moderna than they are to be hospitalized with COVID-19.” Hoeg’s co-author, Josh Stevenson, is associated with Rational Ground, a group that has opposed public health measures throughout the pandemic. The research has also beenquestioned due to its use of data from the VAERS platform, which has been widely used by anti-vaccine proponents to spread COVID misinformation.
Peter D’Adamo
Peter D’Adamo is a naturopath who has claimed there is “compelling evidence” that supplements can reduce the severity of COVID infection. Before sharing his opinions on COVID, D’Adamo hasauthored books about the blood type diet, which claims eating based on your blood type can cause weight loss and prevent disease. He has also claimed that blood type influences personality characteristics.
Shveta Raju
Shveta Raju is an internal medicine physician in Georgia who has publicly questioned masking guidance. In a March 2021 twitter thread, when the majority of the nation remained unvaccinated, Raju shared a patient experience where she undermined parental authority, stating, “When I examined her, I asked her to take her mask off so she could take good, deep breaths, and I could get a good listen. She hesitated and looked to her mom for approval…I looked my new, young patient in the eye and said, ‘You don’t need your mom’s approval! I’m a doctor, I’m fully vaccinated, and I have my mask on!’”
Joseph Fraiman
Joseph Fraiman is a Louisiana physician who has claimed there is insufficient evidence to suggest the benefits of vaccination outweigh potential risks. In September of 2021, Fraiman stated, “typically…the vaccine-hesitant[s] I’ve met in the ER are more familiar with vaccine studies and more aware of their own COVID risks than the vaccinated…Without this data, we, the medical establishment, cannot confidently call out anti-COVID vaccine activists who publicly claim the vaccines harm more than they save, especially in the young and healthy. The fact that we do not have the clinical evidence to say these activists are wrong should terrify us all.”
Jill Ackerman
Jill Ackerman is a Kansas family medicine physician who has been vocal against mask requirements for unvaccinated children. In July of 2021, as the Delta variant was spreading across the nation, Ackerman claimed that the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment was spreading “alarmist and sensational misinformation” by recommending masking for children in light of increased pediatric infections and hospitalizations. Ackerman asked, “WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE THAT MASKING OUR CHILDREN MAKES A STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT BENEFIT?” despite evidence that masking mitigates the spread of disease.