XPost: alt.survival, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, can.politics   
   XPost: rec.arts.tv, alt.politics, alt.atheism   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.abortion, alt.global-warming   
   XPost: alt.journalism.criticism, alt.news-media, alt.checkmate   
   From: liamhardshell@bikerider.com   
      
   >He's says vaccines are dangerous and ONLY COVID will kill more Trump   
   >supporters going forward.   
   >   
   >He's black!   
   >   
   >   
   >Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ controversial decision to appoint   
   >as his surgeon general a doctor who previously likened Covid-19   
   >vaccination efforts to a misguided “religion” is emerging as a   
   >potentially powerful weapon for his Covid denialism.   
   >   
   >Ladapo is strengthening DeSantis’ position by staking out positions even   
   >too extreme for DeSantis to take.   
   >   
   >DeSantis has tried to walk a careful line on the vaccine — acknowledging   
   >its safety, while also over-emphasizing monoclonal antibodies as an   
   >alternative and standing beside vaccine skeptics. But now the leading   
   >public health spokesperson in his government, Joseph Ladapo, is outright   
   >questioning vaccines and spreading disinformation about them.   
   >   
   >This makes Ladapo a precious political asset for DeSantis: Rather than   
   >using his medical expertise to act as a check on DeSantis’ recklessly lax   
   >Covid policies, Ladapo is strengthening DeSantis’ position by staking out   
   >positions even too extreme for DeSantis to take, while providing them   
   >with a veneer of scientific expertise.   
   >   
   >During a news conference Thursday, Ladapo made a number of shocking   
   >claims out of line with leading public health guidance and scientific   
   >claims about the vaccine. Standing with DeSantis by his side, he   
   >lambasted workplace mandates by openly questioning the idea that vaccines   
   >could be trusted and that the scientific community's claims about them   
   >were credible. Some of his remarks are worth quoting at length:   
   >   
   >    I mean, you hear these stories, people telling you what’s been   
   >happening in their lives — nurses, pregnant women who are being forced to   
   >sort of put something in their bodies that we don’t know all there is to   
   >know about yet. No matter what people on TV tell you, it’s not true.   
   >We’re going to learn more about the safety of these vaccines, right?   
   >   
   >    You remember when people were telling you that, you know, that these   
   >vaccines would stop transmission and the rates of protection were greater   
   >than 90 percent? Well, guess what? Here we are about 10 months afterward.   
   >And we’re finding that the data are showing that in some of these   
   >vaccines, the protection from infection is less than 40 percent. And even   
   >less than that, for some of them.   
   >   
   >    So this idea that we are foolish for not believing people who are   
   >telling us things that we don’t have data for right now is ridiculous,   
   >and people need to continue and stick with their intuition and their   
   >sensibilities.   
   >   
   >There’s a lot to unpack about these irresponsible remarks. It’s true that   
   >of course we have not exhausted our knowledge of vaccine safety, much the   
   >way we haven’t exhausted our knowledge of the safety or health   
   >implications of nearly any food or medicine or any other kind of   
   >substance we put in our body.   
   >   
   >But that reality isn’t grounds for abject skepticism of Covid-19   
   >vaccines, which are being studied and improved upon by leading scientists   
   >around the world and are the subject of constant, rigorous scrutiny.   
   >Instead, we have to draw from that data and make cost-benefit   
   >calculations — not only about the vaccine itself, but about how risky the   
   >vaccine is versus the disease that it fights. By any reasonable measure,   
   >the vaccine is extraordinarily safe and much, much safer than contracting   
   >Covid.   
   >   
   >Ladapo cited neither a study nor a credible body of researchers who are   
   >worried about vaccine safety. Instead, he raised the idea of “stories”   
   >you hear, suggesting the public give extra weight to anecdotes and   
   >conspiracy theories while shunning authorities “on TV.”   
   >   
   >Instead of providing guidance on how people can keep up with the latest   
   >research or understand the debate about vaccines, Ladapo encouraged   
   >Floridians to exercise their “??intuition and their sensibilities.” This   
   >sort of talk is an affront to the very notion of being a public health   
   >official.   
   >   
   >Ladapo was also spreading disinformation in his statements implying that   
   >the medical establishment never believed that transmission after   
   >vaccination was possible. This is plainly untrue.   
   >   
   >   
   >It's unclear exactly what Ladapo's 40 percent figure is referring to, but   
   >it seems to be a criticism that some of the vaccines, most notably   
   >Johnson & Johnson's, have declined in efficacy over time. Not only was   
   >this expected, but it also doesn't constitute a counterargument to   
   >getting one.   
   >   
   >As Kavita Patel, a primary care physician and MSNBC contributor told me,   
   >even with declining efficacy against infection, the vaccines still   
   >provide people with memory cell immunity, which protects against severe   
   >cases of the disease and reduces likelihood of hospitalization and death.   
   >Florida’s new surgeon general ‘is a prop’ serving DeSantis’ interests   
   >doctor says   
   >Sept. 23, 202102:41   
   >   
   >Patel also emphasized that this is basic medical knowledge that Ladapo, a   
   >Harvard Medical School-trained doctor, certainly should know.   
   >   
   >Ladapo seems to be playing a role for DeSantis often reserved for a vice   
   >president or a deputy official: a pit bull who can go on attack and   
   >absorb criticism the top figurehead cannot risk taking. DeSantis surely   
   >hoped for this when he hired him, knowing Ladapo had made a splash with   
   >his zealous public skepticism of mask-wearing and vaccine efficacy.   
   >   
   >It raises questions of whether Ladapo is hoping to enter politics himself   
   >one day, or if he’s rehearsing for an even more prominent surgeon general   
   >position in the future. There’s also the possibility that, despite all   
   >his training, he’s a true believer in all the things he says. Perhaps   
   >that’s even more disconcerting.   
   >   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)