As Joseph Ladapo’s three-year tenure as state surgeon general and UF professor of medicine approaches this month, his presence at UF has largely served as a figurehead role, despite years of public concern and reports depicting otherwise.
Ladapo has surprisingly little control over the university’s health policies, according to Matt Hitchings, the UF assistant professor of biostatistics.
Under Ladapo’s guidance, Florida allowed optional masking and banned vaccine mandates. However, his powers appear limited at UF. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mask-wearing was highly encouraged at UF, and vaccinations were strongly recommended.
His difference in opinion was further revealed on Sept. 18, 2023, when UF encouraged the university community to receive the new COVID-19 booster, just five days after Ladapo spoke out against it during a livestream.
Hitchings, an expert on infectious diseases who researched COVID-19, said UF would never come out and directly criticize Ladapo, but the university has put out policies that contradict his recommendations.
“As far as I can tell, he didn’t really have an impact on UF’s policies,” Hitchings said. “In fact, UF’s policies were at odds with what he was putting out in terms of state guidance.”
Although Ladapo does not appear to have a visible influence on the university’s policies, Hitchings said it’s disheartening to see pandemic protocols at the state level and the disconnect between the state surgeon general and the academics at UF.
“We're trying to advocate for public health measures and understand the evidence for them,” Hitchings said. “And then you have a professor of medicine who in his other role — which, of course, has nothing to do with UF — [is] advocating for the complete opposite.”
Ladapo, who was previously an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles’s David Geffen School of Medicine, gained attention during the pandemic for his op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, where he spoke out against medical mandates and championed the freedom of choice.
His articles caught Gov. Ron DeSantis’s attention, and in September 2021, Ladapo was appointed Florida surgeon general. That same month, he received a professorship at UF’s College of Medicine.
Ladapo was a prominent skeptic of the rules and regulations set during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing against what he perceived as a misrepresentation of science. He promoted the use of Iivermectin to combat the virus, which the Food and Drug Administration found ineffective against COVID-19, and opposed mandates for lockdowns, mask-wearing and vaccination.
Derek Cummings, the former associate director of the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute, disapproved of how Ladapo chose to handle the pandemic. He believes he had done a great disservice to the citizens of Florida, he said.
“I think he's acted inappropriately at multiple stages of response,” Cummings said. “I think at times there's an indication that he actually manipulated reports and engaged in activities that raised scientific integrity concerns, and I think there are times he just ignored a lot of the guidance that was out there and the evidence for and against the positive and negative aspects of COVID vaccines.”
Despite the criticism, DeSantis continues to publicly commend Ladapo for his medical perspectives. The two of them worked together to shape Florida’s pandemic policies.
As recently as Aug. 20, DeSantis wrote a message on X in support of Ladapo, saying he was “right all along” about COVID-19 vaccines for children after an Oxford study found cases of pericarditis and myocarditis, or inflammations around the heart, in vaccinated adolescents.
“Dr. Ladapo has done a great job as [Florida surgeon general],” DeSantis wrote on X Nov. 14, 2022. “His evidence-based principles serve as a counterweight to the increasingly political positions of the entrenched medical establishment, especially on schools, masks and mRNA shots.”
Editor's note: This story previously reported that mask-wearing was required at UF. This has been corrected to reflect that mask-wearing was highly recommended.
Contact Annie Wang at awang@alligator.org. Follow her on X @wynwg.
Annie Wang is a sophomore journalism student and the Fall 2024 University Administration Reporter. She previously wrote for the University Desk as a General Assignment reporter. In her spare time, she can be found reading and writing book reviews.
