Ron DeSantis’s hand-picked Surgeon General for Florida Joseph Ladapo called for the halt of the use of the mRNA coronavirus vaccine, saying there’s evidence that the vaccine alters human DNA, the Washington Post reports. In fact, there is no such evidence and the trials of the vaccine show it to be safe.
An immigrant of Nigeria, Ladapo was imported from California to serve as Florida’s attorney general after making a name for himself by making unsubstantiated, outrageous claims, first about the coronavirus and then about gender-affirming care. The promotion of vaccine hesitancy at this moment may be an attempt to promote DeSantis’s anti-vaccine status, given that 55% of Republicans have expressed skepticism about coronavirus vaccines.