When it comes to vaccinations, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo say Floridians don’t need to know whether state officials take shots or get them for their own children.
The two faced questions during a press conference Wednesday at the University of South Florida—Morsani College of Medicine. Regarding whether the state’s chief executive and head doctor ensure their children get shots, Ladapo dismissed it as “one of the funny things about this job” after a laughing DeSantis asked him if he wanted to “take that.”
“All this media stuff is all new to me. And some of the questions are just so funny. And you know this idea of ‘Well, do you vaccinate? Did you take the COVID shot?’ … I actually don’t care about sharing information about that,” Ladapo said.
“I really don’t care at all. But I won’t. And I won’t because I’m not going to participate in the silly games that so much of the media chooses to partake in instead of the substantive parts of the issues.”
The Governor didn’t disclose his position directly either, instead telling stories of his frustration with previous vaccine coverage.
“They were trying to, like, ding me for not taking the mRNA booster. I didn’t do it because I didn’t think it was necessary,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis was an advocate of the COVID vaccine during the early days of the pandemic, and he said he had gotten the “one and done” Johnson & Johnson shot.
Since the Governor promulgated the “seniors first” approach to inoculation, his mindset has shifted, and he said people are with him on that.
“Now we’re in a situation where I think that the amount of people that do the COVID boosters is very low. The number of parents that do it for kids is very low, and it’s because they’ve looked at the data, they’ve talked to folks, and they’ve decided that there’s not an obvious benefit from doing it,” DeSantis said Wednesday.
He has also suggested that a lack of vaccine mandates would lead to more “uptake” on shots voluntarily.
Ladapo, who said during the event that his critics were preoccupied with “minor viruses,” also addressed whether insurance will cover shots if they are not mandatory.
He wasn’t worried.
“If we don’t force people to take something, will insurance companies not pay for it? No, I don’t think that that’s a concern,” he said.
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