SARASOTA — A proposal to post Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo‘s opinions about the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines on the Sarasota Memorial Hospital website brought about 150 people to Tuesday’s Sarasota County Public Hospital Board meeting.
But the proposal the Board considered wasn’t the one the people who came to support or oppose the proposal expected.
Board Member Victor Rohe previously raised the idea of putting Ladapo’s recommendations on the SMH website, saying people suggested it to him.
But that wasn’t done. The board approved, 8-1, other suggestions.
Ladapo, on record as a COVID vaccine skeptic before being appointed to his position, sent a letter on Dec. 6, 2023 to Food & Drug Administration Commissioner Robert M. Califf and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Mandy Cohen citing a 2007 FDA report on DNA vaccines in support of his position that the mRNA vaccines are unproven and unsafe and should be avoided because they could alter a recipient’s DNA.
He has recommended against getting vaccinated.
Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, responded to Ladapo’s letter Dec. 14, 2023, noting that more than 1 billion vaccine doses had been administered at that point with no problems regarding residual DNA in them.
He also pointed out the report Ladapo used was about DNA, not mRNA, vaccines.
Ladapo’s stance on the vaccines has been widely criticized as not being in line with the bulk of scientific research.
However, it has been embraced by people who consider themselves part of a “medical freedom” movement, some of whom have called COVID-19 a hoax, or call it a “plandemic.”
Many of them made similar claims at a March 2023 meeting regarding a Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s pandemic response the Board had approved a month earlier.
They showed up Tuesday to support Rohe, only to learn that in the Board’s closed Quality Committee meeting earlier in the day his proposal had been significantly modified.
The committee — which consists of all nine Board members — unanimously recommended a proposal for Board approval that makes no mention of Ladapo nor his opinions on vaccines. Rather, it states:
• That the Board will continue to respect and honor every patient’s right to make their own health care decision within the patient-physician relationship, and using all resources available to them to inform the discussions surrounding those decisions.
• That the Board will continue to endeavor not to invade the physician-patient relationship or mandate treatment regimens for patients to its physicians.
• That the Board will respect that patients, in conjunction with their care providers, should decide which recommended treatments or interventions they use, including what vaccinations are right for them.
• That the Board will continue to advocate for retrospective analysis, research, and evidence-based recommendations from state and federal regulatory agencies with the responsibility for public health initiatives, including vaccines, and encourages patients and their health care providers to access all credible resources regarding their discussions and decisions.
• That the Board hereby directs administration to forward the comments and concerns of community members related to vaccine safety to the FDA, the CDC, and Florida’s Department of Health and encourage their review of the concersn of our community.
The recommendations were the product of Board debate, consultation with medical staff and public input, according to a statement that preceded the reading of the recommendations.
Public comments were about evenly divided between people who expressed support for not posting Ladapo’s opinions on the website and people who objected to the recommendations and wanted the Board to put Rohe’s original proposal to a vote.
Dr. Washington Hill, who’s been on SMH’s staff for 35 years, said Ladapo’s claims about the mRNA vaccines are false, and would contribute to serious illness and deaths.
“Not interfering with my doctor-patient relationship is medical freedom,” he said.
Siesta Key resident Janalee Heinemann said her husband couldn’t go to a cardiac unit after heart surgery because the beds were full of COVID patients.
“Please do not put us back in the dark ages,” she said.
Venice resident Saul Kilstein urged the Board to ignore the “noise,” but proposed that it table the recommendations because they’re “taking a pass on a very hard issue.”
Several people who opposed them expressed a similar sentiment from their point of view.
Ladapo is the state’s top medical officer and SMH is a public hospital, said Michelle Pozzie, of North Port, who called the recommendations “watered-down.”
“What were you doing before this?” she said.
Sally Nista, of Venice, said Ladapo’s opinions should be posted “because he’s giving residents a different perspective on the dangerous, flawed, ineffective, experimental” vaccines.
“We can and will be participating to make sure you are doing all the right things,” she said, in a reference to four Board seats up for election this year. “Freedom” candidates are in each race.
Stephen Guffanti, a medical doctor who alleged he was mistreated during an SMH hospitalization, told the Board that in the interest of transparency it should post “both the surgeon general’s position and the science.” He then held up a vaccine package insert that was largely blank, call it “the science.”
It was widely reported at the time the vaccines came out that the inserts were left mostly blank because the information is mainly online, to ensure that it’s current.
Other speakers raised anti-vax talking points about alleged increases in the incidence of myocarditis, strokes and cancer related to the vaccines, which Jon Kopel, a Sarasota resident, called a “bioweapon.”
Conni Brunni, of Englewood, was one of several people who had a problem with the Board’s direction to SMH administration to relay public concerns about the vaccines to state and federal agencies.
She said it sounded like a threat, and called it a “poison pill.”
“You’re putting me back in the arms of my abuser,” said Lisa Roulet, of Nokomis, referring to the FDA and the CDC. “You guys don’t care.”
That recommendation was removed before the Board voted. The other four recommendations were approved 8-1, with Board Member Patricia Maraia voting against them even though she chairs the Quality Control Committee.
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