The following quote is attributed to Upton Sinclair. He was the Democratic Party candidate for Governor of California during the Great Depression in 1934 and lost. He then published a book about the experience titled “I, Candidate for Governor, and How I Got Licked”. Various papers published exerts that included this now-famous quote …
It Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon His Not Understanding It
Almost a century later it really is very apt.
New Surgeon General of Flordia beautifully illustrates this
Joseph A. Ladapo is an American physician who is now serving as the surgeon general of Florida.
This past week his appointment by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was up for formal approval.
It was a very heated hearing.
Ladapo was asked five times by Democratic Senator Lauren Book to answer “yes” or “no” to the question if Covid-19 vaccines are effective. Each and every time he avoided giving the answer.
After the hearing, he said that he thought he had answered the questions accurately. Translation: He answered in a manner that enabled him to keep his paycheck.
One other big issue is that he was asked about his treatment of Democratic State Senator Tina Polsky. The backstory there is that last October when meeting with Ms. Polsky, he had refused to wear a face-covering even when he knew that she was being treated for breast cancer. When asked if he regretted his behavior, Dr. Ladapo declined to answer directly three times but instead said that it’s “very important to respect people’s preferences”. That’s quite frankly a bizarre answer because that is clearly what he had refused to do.
Totally frustrated with him refusing to answer meaningful and very relevant questions, all the Democrats walked out in protest.
CNN quite rightly covered all of this …
What is clear
Ladapo knows that vaccines work, but he also knows that if he wants to keep his job he can’t say that, hence we get this utterly bizarre bit of political theatre.
CDC Guidance is Clear – The Vaccines are effective and they really do work
I really don’t need to tell you this last bit.
However, for completeness, here it is, the very latest CDC insights.
This is their latest weekly MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) …
Here is a key quote … (emphases mine) …
…Rates of COVID-19 cases were lowest among fully vaccinated persons with a booster dose, compared with fully vaccinated persons without a booster dose, and much lower than rates among unvaccinated persons …
This is not opinion, speculation, or projection. Nor is it a political position. This is rock solid observational data of what has happened.
I do not expect most to be regular readers of the CDC MMWR. I do however expect a surgeon general to have his or her finger on this pulse. Ladapo requires no psychic powers to know the scientific facts. It is literally his f**king job to know.
Scientific facts must remain scientific facts.
However, what is happening here is very obvious. To slightly alter my opening quote …
It Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Political position Depends Upon His Not Understanding It
When it comes to the role of surgeon general, I really quite honestly do not care what the politics of any appointee actually. All that matters is that whoever it is, should use the best available data to made informed decisions for the maximum degree of well-being. Right now Ladapo has demonstrated that he is utterly incapable of doing that.
Anybody voting him into place is voting for deliberate practised incompetence.