Dr. Ladapo should resign

Ladapo measles memo contradicts CDC advice | Feb. 25

Parents deserve sound medical advice to keep their children healthy. The advice they receive from science-defying Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo can actually harm their health instead. He failed to urge parents to vaccinate their children as a precaution in a letter to parents at a Broward County school following six measles cases.

Measles is one of the most infectious diseases on the planet and can lead to blindness, brain infection and even death. Childhood vaccination prevents this devastating disease and is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.

Florida has one of the highest death rates in the country from COVID and some of the blame rests on Ladapo who stated that COVID vaccines are “not appropriate for use in human beings” and has encouraged Floridians to avoid these vaccines. In my medical practice, I, Lynn Ringenberg, have seen a drop-off in childhood flu vaccinations, likely due to the general fear of vaccines he is promoting. Flu can lead to pneumonia and rarely death. Ladapo has betrayed the public trust by consistently promoting medical falsehoods. Our children and all Floridians deserve better. He should immediately step down or be forced to resign.

Lynn Ringenberg and Ron Saff

Lynn Ringenberg is professor emeritus, USF Health Pediatrics, and Ron Saff is a Tallahassee allergist-immunologist. Both are board members of Physicians for Social Responsibility/Florida.

The duty to others

Ladapo measles memo contradicts CDC advice | Feb. 25

Who is protecting all of the children in Florida? Certainly not Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. He had opposed vaccines for both COVID and measles although both vaccines have been recommended by the CDC. Every parent has the right and responsibility to make decisions for their child, but we all have the same responsibility to protect other children as well. If a parent chooses not to vaccinate their child, fine; but also choose to keep your child home from being around other children until all chances of infecting others has passed. Someone has to protect all of our children. Let it be us, because Ladapo does not.

Marilyn S. Warner, Clearwater

Treated with disinformation

Vaccine hesitancy grows — and so do measles outbreaks | Editorial, Feb. 21

This editorial shines a glaring spotlight on the real-life dangers of information that is spread with the intention of dissuading the public from taking an action that, in many cases, could literally be life-saving. Floridians have been “treated” to a disinformation tsunami propagated by top-ranking state government officials with the sole purpose of causing innocent citizens to avoid nationally-recommended actions, in this particular instance, vaccinations.

When an individual — whose appointed role is oversight of Florida citizens’ health — intentionally encourages those same citizens to not follow recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to get vaccinated, the reasonably-intelligent citizen has to question that individual’s self-serving motives. Sadly, this deliberate communication of disinformation has the very real potential to lead to equally very real sickness and, yes, death. To be clear, “disinformation” is deliberate communication of false information (also known as “blatant lying”).

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That state leaders should deliberately mislead their trusting publics is truly disheartening. We can only hope that they, too, get their own “rewards” and are banished into well-deserved ignominy. In the meantime, as I encourage my students and others, check and double-check what you read/see/hear. Caveat lector.

Kirk Hazlett, Riverview

The author is an adjunct professor of communication at The University of Tampa and ethics officer of the Tampa Bay Chapter, Public Relations Society of America.

Stop pussyfooting around

US and EU pile new sanctions on Russia for Ukraine, Navalny | Feb. 24

The headline raises a question: Why are there any sanctions left after two years of war in Ukraine? Why do we always nibble around the edges, doing as little as possible, and expect to achieve a worthwhile objective? If you want to punish Russia for bad behavior, then do it and stop pussyfooting around. Instead, we apply layer after layer of obviously ineffective halfway measures while Vladimir Putin laughs in our faces. It’s called being a “paper tiger.”

John S.V. Weiss, Spring Hill

I went to school

Why are Florida kids not in school? | Editorial, Feb. 24

My parents made sure that I knew that attending school was not optional.

Carlos J. DeCisneros, Tampa

Perfectly clear

Democrats are too resigned to Joe Biden running again | Column, Feb. 22

Just when I thought I was beginning to tolerate Peggy Noonan, she proposes that the Democrats are “too resigned” to supporting President Joe Biden’s reelection. Yes, I know, Biden is old and sometimes forgets things. We all do, but whenever I’ve heard him speak about aid for Ukraine or Israel, it has sounded perfectly clear to me. Yet the Republicans continue to support a twice-impeached former president; he’s been found liable in a civil sexual assault and a defamation case; he paid off a porn-star and Playboy Playmate for having sex; he suggested drinking bleach to cure COVID; he’s been indicted on 91 charges and faces four criminal charges; compares his “victimization” to the plight of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny; cozies up to dictators; clearly confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, but insists he was just being sarcastic, and now has a line of gold-plated tennis shoes to hawk along with his NFT trading cards. Are you telling me that the Republicans have no one else who could run for president either?

David Lubin, Tampa

I have to be licensed. Them?

The Florida Legislature

The Florida Legislature is considering my graduate level education, my required clinical supervision, my licensure and my experience unnecessary to provide counseling to children in the public school system. The current pending legislation (HB 931 and companion SB1044) would permit untrained, volunteer (undefined) chaplains in schools to provide mental health services. The mental health crisis that young people are experiencing is now well known and yet with an agenda that is clearly religiously motivated some Florida legislators are willing to gamble with our youth’s emotional stability to advance their agenda. Parents, teachers, other qualified mental health providers and any citizen who only want professionals providing the delicate and often complex work of counseling left only to those trained to do, so please let your legislators know this is unacceptable for our children.

Barbara Byrne, Bradenton

The writer is a licensed clinical social worker.

No way to stop it

Social media bill heads to DeSantis | Feb. 23

There’s no question that social media is addictive to most kids and that it often leads to bad outcomes. However, any attempt to solve this issue with restrictive legislation is doomed to failure. First Amendment issues and parental rights issues leap out, but the most salient problem is enforcement. There is no way on God’s green Earth that any effective enforcement mechanism can be developed or implemented. Kids, often with the help of adults, will figure out numerous ways to circumvent restricted access to social media. It’s just going to happen. Restrictive laws such as this are always questionable and should be approached carefully, but even so, if mechanisms for enforcement start out lame, the effort is doomed to failure.

Jon Crawfurd, Gulfport

Life in the fast lane

Florida may crack down on left-lane driving | Feb. 23

Very few people cruise in the left lane. I think the problem is some politicians find it abhorrent that someone who’s driving 75 mph, passing a driver doing 70, isn’t going fast enough when a driver screams up doing 95 mph, slamming brakes, flashing high beams. You want a better law? Treat it like a ski slope. The one in front has the right of way. They were there first. Back up until they’re done passing. Our highways are dangerous enough. This bill would give the most dangerous driving cohort legal cover to act like thugs. When you enable your spoiled brat kids, you don’t turn them good.

Jason Barrera, Oldsmar

Your beliefs, not your body

Embryo ruling pauses more Ala. IVF providers | Feb. 23

Those self-righteous individuals who rail against face masks and vaccines but have no problem dictating what a pregnant woman can or can’t do are the worst kind of hypocrites. Now Alabama has decided that frozen embryos are unborn children. Where does this lunacy end? What about a woman who has a voluntary oophorectomy because she is at high risk for ovarian cancer? Those removed ovaries contain thousands of egg cells with the potential to become embryos. The decision to abort a pregnancy is heart wrenching, intensely personal and excruciating. It is a decision a woman lives with for the rest of her life. I personally would not want to make that decision, but I support the right of women to decide what happens with their body. Just because you believe abortion is a sin doesn’t mean you get to force your beliefs on others. Otherwise we are no different than the radical theocracies we so despise.

L.A. Weiner, St. Petersburg

A matter of opinion

Fla. bill that would make it easier to sue media advances | Feb. 22

Why are Christian and conservative media broadcasters so against a Florida bill that would make it easier to sue media companies that cite anonymous sources and publish false information without verifying it? Stephen Miller, a former senior adviser to former President Donald Trump, stated that it will “wreck” conservative influencers, podcasts and alternate media if the bill passes, and that it should be tailored to go after corporate (mainstream) media instead. It’s almost as if he’s saying that these conservative sources are intentionally promoting false, unsubstantiated opinions as facts.

Danny Reich, Zephyrhills

Kids and guns

Florida kids who carry guns could soon face stiffer penalties | Feb. 21

So let me understand, the basic Florida Republican plan is to litter the streets with guns, then incarcerate the kids who pick them up ?

Pat Ward, St. Petersburg