When Florida Republicans made Dr. Joseph Ladapo the state’s surgeon general three years ago, the physician took on a multifaceted position. Indeed, Ladapo wouldn’t just serve as Florida’s surgeon general, he was also tasked with leading the state’s Department of Health, while simultaneously receiving a tenured faculty position at the University of Florida.
How’s that working out? The Alligator, the university’s student-run newspaper, reported this week on the controversial doctor’s tenure.
Ladapo’s work calendar shows monthslong stretches with little or no activity. Instead of attaining grants and conducting research, he spent his first year revising manuscripts and writing his memoir, ‘Transcend Fear,’ which details his skepticism of vaccines. He also promised to bring hundreds of thousands in research dollars from the University of California at Los Angeles, his previous employer. That never happened. … A review of internal reports and public directories indicate Ladapo hasn’t secured any research grants for UF.
The same report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that Lapado’s classroom contributions have been “sparse”; one of his proposed courses “has yet to materialize”; and there’s “little evidence” that the internal medicine program he was supposed to lead has done meaningful work.
“Although UF leaders initially welcomed Ladapo, issues with absenteeism, funding shortfalls and clashes with colleagues quickly emerged,” the article added. (Ladapo and university representatives didn’t respond to The Alligator’s requests for comment.)
Officials can’t say they weren’t warned.
Revisiting our earlier coverage, Ladapo’s former supervisor at UCLA discouraged Florida officials from hiring the controversial doctor, saying that Ladapo relied on his opinions more than scientific evidence. The UCLA supervisor added that Ladapo’s weird theories “created a stressful environment for his research and clinical colleagues and subordinates,” some of whom believed the doctor “violated the duty in the Hippocratic Oath to behave honestly and ethically.”
It was not the first time Ladapo’s work at UCLA generated scrutiny. It was during his tenure in California when the physician also claimed in a USA Today op-ed that his perspective on Covid treatments had been shaped by his experience “taking care of patients with COVID-19 at UCLA’s flagship hospital.” Two weeks later, Ladapo added in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that he had his experience “caring for patients with suspected or diagnosed Covid-19 infections at UCLA.”
The Rachel Maddow Show’s reporting later called those claims into question. As my colleague Kay Guerrero explained in a report, “Several former colleagues of Dr. Joseph Ladapo … say he misled the public about his experience treating Covid-19 patients.”








