Florida Surgeon Gen. Joseph Ladapo: DeSantis-Critic Positions on COVID ‘Were Always Invalid’

May 13, 2022 Updated 9:59 A.M. ET

TALLAHASSEE (FLV) – Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo appeared on Tucker Carlson Today to discuss how he and Gov. Ron DeSantis dealt with left-wing politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Do you feel like, now that you’re in Florida … the way that Florida handled the pandemic, that that approach has been vindicated?” Carlson asked.

“I think, frankly, it doesn’t matter, because the vindication … it assumes that the people in the media, you know, doctors in the medical community, a lot of the public health community, had valid positions to begin with. But their positions were always invalid,” Ladapo said.

“You know, I love him, I have tremendous affinity for him [DeSantis] and it’s because he has integrity and God has fortunately blessed him with just a very clear vision of the difference between right and wrong,” he continued.

“What he’s been pushing for the entire time – it’s always been the right thing. And, that’s the validation … That is the right thing to do because people are human beings, freedom matters, health is more than one stinking virus, and, you know, fear will never be the path to any type of enlightenment, joy, happiness, connection with other people – every single thing that matters in life.”

“Love and other virtues – that’s the right way to lead, and that’s what he’s done,” Ladapo said of DeSantis.

Throughout the pandemic, DeSantis supported anti-lockdown policies, in-person schooling, outlawed vaccine and mask mandates in virtually every setting, and spoke out against alarmist federal guidelines from the Biden Administration and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Ladapo was confirmed in February as Florida’s Surgeon General and took heavy heat from Democrats during his confirmation.