Sunburn — The Morning Read Of What’s Hot In Florida Politics — 10.26.21

  By Peter Schorsch    

Good Tuesday morning.

Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has done the unthinkable: He’s made his predecessor, Scott Rivkees, look like an all-star.

By no means should Rivkees be the measuring stick for public health acumen. He was a mostly silent pushover, and one of the few times he gave a sound opinion as Surgeon General — when he said Floridians may need to social distance for a year or more — he was ushered into a backroom for a not-so-private lashing.

In other words, he was about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

But Ladapo is worse than a do-nothing figurehead. Within a matter of weeks, he’s transformed the Department of Health into an enforcement arm for the state’s spite-fueled coronavirus response strategy.

He has ordered COVID-19-positive students back into the classroom and spread vaccine misinformation. Now, he’s taking heat for refusing to wear a mask when visiting Sen. Tina Polsky, who has cancer, in her office at the Capitol.

When asked to leave, he couldn’t resist throwing out a barb drenched in smugness: “Sometimes I try to reason with unreasonable people for fun.”

If Dr. Ladapo finds joy in reasoning with unreasonable people, he should clear his calendar and talk to himself in the mirror. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that he was urging in a Wall Street Journal op-ed to “focus on protecting vulnerable populations … by directing testing and personal protective equipment to them and their close contacts.”

A lot has changed in the past year, but the medical definition of “vulnerable” has not. Nor have the social standards for manners or respect. Ladapo knows this, but instead, he flouted the best practices he once supported.

That’s the trouble with being an unscrupulous contrarian: Given a long enough timeline, you end up contradicting yourself.

For his own sake, let’s hope he also enjoys reasoning with reasonable people because he’ll have to do a lot of that to earn Senate confirmation.

— SITUATIONAL AWARENESS —

Tweet, tweet:

—@GovRonDeSantis: NIH not only funded dangerous gain-of-function research in Wuhan, but it also funded cruel experiments on puppies. Where is the accountability?

—@AmandiOnAir: Take it from this Floridian. The only person more dangerous to the future of our nation than Donald Trump, is Donald Trump 2.0 — Ron DeSantis.

—@MaryEllenKlas: One problem @wsvn. It’s called how a bill becomes a law. Is there a bill? Has it been heard? Voted on? Passed? Is there a budget allocation? Has that been heard and approved? Once that is done and reported, you can write the headline about whether the Governor will sign it.

—@Fineout: Inbox: “Nikki (Fried) mentioned you, Gary, and wanted me to reach out directly. Since we’re just days away from our end-of-month fundraising deadline, we urgently need you to step up.” Seriously doubt this … can’t even get the campaign to answer questions sometimes …

—@MattGaetz: The Facebook “scandal” is a false flag intended to justify an oncoming wave of censorship against the Right.

Tweet, tweet:

Tweet, tweet:

—@Chris_Minor10: Supply chain issues have peaked. @Whataburger is out of both hash browns and spicy ketchup during peak breakfast hours. I hate Mondays.