Sarasota Memorial Hospital board will consider adopting Ladapo's anti-vaccine guidance

The Sarasota County Public Hospital Board will weigh a proposal by board member Vic Rohe that the hospital embrace assertions by Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo that COVID–19 vaccinations are risky and inappropriate for human use when it meets at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Federal health officials say Ladapo’s position is contrary to science and potentially deadly.

In January, Rohe asked for the proposal – a five-page motion that he said members of the community handed him – to be placed on a future agenda.

There may be a large turnout for the meeting scheduled for the auditorium of the Waldemere Tower at 1700 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, since James Hoel, president of the far right America First Southwest Florida Caucus, urged members at the organization’s May 8 meeting to attend the hospital board meeting and support Rohe’s motion.

A hospital spokeswoman said there has been no organized effort within the hospital to urge employees to attend the meeting.

In 2023, when the hospital board hosted a public review of a report on Sarasota Memorial’s COVID-19 response, a combination of the hospital board’s open mic policy for public comment and subsequent postings on social media turned formerly placid board meetings into a national culture war stage.

That study, posted at https://bit.ly/3TN0nyO, was commissioned after Rohe and two other self-proclaimed “health freedom" candidates were elected to the nine-member hospital board in 2022.

Four seats on the board are up for election this fall, with a slate of Republican “medical freedom” candidates – who, like Rohe, question COVID treatment protocols recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and using remedies authorized by the Food and Drug Administration – seeking election.

A slate of Republican candidates who prefer to follow those established protocols have filed for those four seats, too, while Democrat candidates have filed to run for three of the seats.

The Central District Seat 1 between Republican incumbent Hospital Board Chairwoman Sarah Lodge and medical freedom candidate Tanya Parus would be decided Aug. 20 during a universal primary, unless a Democrat files for that seat by noon June 14.

This is what Ladapo claims about mRNA Covid-19 vaccines

In January, Ladapo questioned the safety of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and ultimately recommended against their use. The CDC defines mRNA as genetic material that tells the body how to make proteins that work on the COVID-19 virus to prompt an immune response that helps people fight off the illness.

In a December 2023, letter to the FDA, he voiced concerns that the messenger RNA vaccine could impact an individual’s DNA.

In a response that same month, the FDA answered his concerns and warned that vaccine "misinformation and disinformation" will result in fewer people getting vaccinated, which contributes to the "continued death and serious illness toll of COVID-19." The CDC says the vaccine "cannot change your DNA in any way" and that the body breaks down and eliminates mRNA.

This is what Rohe is asking

Rohe wants a post on the SMH website worded to reflect support of Ladapo and his advice. The motion included the following suggested language: “Recent data suggests that there may be significant risks of both short term and long term harm from taking the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.”

The motion also offered suggested language attributed to Ladapo that “these vaccines are not  appropriate for use in human beings,” and closed with the sentence, “In the spirit of transparency and scientific integrity, State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo will continue to assess research surrounding these risks and provide updates to Floridians.”

Rohe has previously declined to respond to calls and emails from the Herald-Tribune asking who gave him the motion and why he thought it was important for Sarasota Memorial Hospital to adopt a stance that runs counter to the opinion of a majority of medical professionals.

He last declined a face-to-face request for comment on April 10.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: SMH board to ponder adoption of controversial anti-vaccine stance