The University of Florida is having second thoughts about the state’s surgeon general being a tenured professor at the institution. Joseph Ladapo became an educator at the university in 2021 when Gov. Ron DeSantis made him the state’s surgeon general. Despite Ladapo’s title and credentials of being a Harvard graduate, fellow Florida professors and state lawmakers have grown frustrated with him, Politico reported.
Fellow educators at the school expected Ladapo to bring in at least $600K in grant funding from his previous job at UCLA, and that didn’t happen. Professors expected him to conduct research on internal medicine as directed by his job offer, but instead, he edited science research manuscripts, gave a guest lecture for grad students, and issued official guidance reflecting his vaccine skepticism.
Ladapo continuously made headlines because of his opposition to the vaccine mandates recommended by other medical professionals. Fellow professors also claim Ladapo admitted in an email he’d only visited Florida’s Gainesville campus twice during his first year on the job. Florida state Sen. Tina Polsky (D-Boca Raton) said she asked Ladapo to give a review about his performance at Florida, but he didn’t give a clear response.
“It was just his typical word salad answers for everything,” Polsky told Politico. “It’s really frustrating.”
Polsky also told the outlet she believes Ladapo is a fraud who is going to campaign with DeSantis.
