Meanwhile, in Florida...
"Dr. L's edits"
We have discussed Dr. Joseph Ladapo at length on this blog. The former UCLA physician was a founding member of insurrectionist Dr. Simone Gold’s embattled hydroxychloroquine group America’s Frontline Doctors, worked in the Trump White House, and now serves as Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Florida Surgeon General where he promotes far-right ideology over evidence-based medicine on topics like LGBTQ healthcare, abortion, and vaccines.
Vanity Fair discussed how DeSantis was using divisive anti-vaccine disinformation care of Ladapo as part of his 2024 presidential campaign that will see him going head-to-head with the disgraced former President Trump. We have discussed the absolute shit show that is AFLDS in 2023, including Ladapo’s publishing of an altered version of a vaccine study to give the results the anti-vaccine political operative was looking for. The work to investigate this originally was done in coordination with Canadian physician Dr. Jon Laxton and American epidemiologist Dr. Katrine Wallace.
Welp, it gets worse. Politico picked up the story and obtained “Dr. L’s edits” which show Ladapo himself was the one to alter the study. Admittedly, our guess was Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg, but we’ll get to that later. The unedited version of the study, used to show a supposed cardiac risk to young men from the Covid vaccines, had to be obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request by journalists.
In a Twitter thread Dr. Laxton explained the mounting evidence against the rogue Florida Surgeon General regarding this update to the story.
He went on to call out remote Florida Health Department “consultant”, DeSantis public health “integrity” committee member, and dark money Norfolk Group member Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg, asking if she would be holding Ladapo accountable.
That is, of course, highly unlikely as Høeg, who has contributed cherry-picked pre-prints to the Ladapo/DeSantis effort as her disservice to the people of Florida, just spread plenty of of political Covid disinformation to Congress. About kids! In case you missed it, independent journalist Walker Bragman, emergency psychiatrist Dr. Tyler Black, and molecular biologist Dr. Dan Wilson discussed her dumpster fire testimony at Rep. Brad Wenstrup’s (R-OH) political farce known as the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic featuring Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-GA).
We did not need more evidence that Florida is a mess; that’s the brand made worse by the stain of Trump. But how much more evidence do medical boards need to hold these people accountable? Furthermore, where the hell does Høeg get off suing Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) to protect her medical license she and her colleagues have bastardized for politics?
Both Dr. Laxton and Dr. Wallace are members of The U.N.’s Team Halo, which itself (as well as Dr. Laxton specifically) has been a target of anti-vax physicians who would incite hate and violence against those who call our their lies before admitting they were wrong. If that sounds like Trump to you, it should.