Surgeon general equates vaccine mandates to slavery as Florida becomes a pariah | Opinion

Doing harm

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo wants to end all vaccine mandates for school children. I’m old enough to remember kids in my elementary school wearing leg braces due to polio. My second grade classmate, Virginia, got sick and never returned. Iron lungs helped people breathe. More recently, my high school buddy Bill, who became a doctor, went to help at a hospital at the outbreak of COVID-19. He caught the disease and died before a vaccine was available.

The unprecedented assault on vaccines for political gain is turning the public health narrative on its head. Truly patriotic Americans should be getting them voluntarily to protect themselves and their fellow citizens. Compulsory vaccinations would not be necessary then. Vaccines aren’t perfect, but they are certainly much better than rampant outbreaks of disease.

In his news conference last Wednesday, Ladapo asked, “Who am I to tell you . . . what you should put in your body?”

Well, you’re a doctor. That is the exact nature of your profession. If you can’t do that, you should resign.

What’s next? No “Click it or ticket“ because seatbelts are a personal choice?

Michael Marmesh, Miami

Past is prologue?

One shouldn’t have to explain to Florida’s surgeon general that the reason vaccines are required for schoolchildren is to prevent the spread of debilitating, sometimes paralyzing, sometimes deadly diseases.

The job of government officials is to protect the public, which at times requires individual preferences be set aside for the common good. Near-universal vaccination has allowed generations of Americans to grow up free from the scourges of communicable diseases.

Why go back to an unhealthier past? Ted Burg, Pembroke Pines

Miami’s neglect

On Sept. 2, President Trump declared, “We’re going in,” announcing plans to send the National Guard to Chicago after a violent weekend there. Guard troops have even been deployed within two miles of the White House. Yet, in Miami, neighborhoods like Brownsville, Liberty City and Homestead face open-air drug markets, prostitution and trafficking without any comparable urgency from Tallahassee or Washington.

Gov. Ron DeSantis found the time and money to champion the failed “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility in the Everglades. He poured resources into political theater while ignoring communities that need real protection. The hypocrisy is clear: if he can fight for a shuttered detention center, why not for Miami families?

Miami Mayor Francis Suárez and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava sell Miami as a tech hub, but rarely speak of the neighborhoods left behind. Our new Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz now controls a significant taxpayer-funded budget. As a resident, I expect those dollars to reach the streets of Brownsville, Liberty City and Homestead, without headline-grabbing operations.

Trump National Doral resort is only five miles from my Zip Code. If extraordinary measures can be taken in Chicago and Washington, then surely Miami’s forgotten neighborhoods deserve the same urgency.

Antonio Soza,

Miami

Vaccine excuses

Florida is ending all vaccine mandates and our state’s surgeon general said pediatricians will never be able to bully or not see a patient or child because they don’t want a vaccine. Best state ever.

Paul Bacon, Hallandale Beach

Fading Florida

Day by day, Florida slides into the status of a Third World entity. The rejection of mandatory vaccination of children to enter school, paired with the elimination of fluoridation of the water supply, are simply a negation of the great successes of modern medical science.

Add to that the banning of books, the torpedoing of home rule, the war against public education, the degradation of our fine college system and the menace of the gun — all are symptomatic of a regression to Third World status.

Frederic A. Friedman,

Miami

Cancer center

Re: the Sept. 3 front page story, “A new cancer hub is opening in Miami Beach soon. Here’s what patients can expect.” With unlimited gratitude to volunteer visionaries like Irma and Norman Braman, my father’s dream of a nonprofit hospital open to all is continuing to be realized.

As Max Orovitz’s sole survivor, I share with his grandchildren and extended family the history of Jewish doctors whose profession was limited by quotas and the antisemitism of the day, merging with early attempts to add a healthcare facility on Miami Beach. By 1946, my father’s 17-member “Temporary Citizens Committee for the Formation of a Jewish Hospital” had received a charter from the state and incorporated as Mount Sinai Hospital of Greater Miami. My father was the first and only Chairman of the Board of Trustees until his death in 1979.

My three daughters and two of my granddaughters were born there and every member of my family has been a patient since the “main building” was erected in 1949. As we look forward to the celebration of 75 years of caring for all, regardless of race, creed and ability to pay, I know my father’s soul will be there in spirit.

Michael D. Orovitz,

Bay Harbor Islands

Endangered children

Florida has determined that vaccine mandates for children will end, alleging it is “medical freedom“ and that mandates are somehow related to slavery. The spread of disease to our children, school staff, families and the public are of no concern.

Our state government also created a temporary tax holiday (until Dec. 31), on sales of firearms, ammunition and accessories. Do we need to make weapons less expensive?

Other countries do not seem to have a fascination with weapons for citizens. Who is Florida protecting?

Not our children.

Diane Greenfield,

Miami

Cultural treasure

Luis Santeiro’s Sept. 3 op-ed, “Would PBS air ‘Que pasa, USA?’ today,” is insightful and provocative. By opening borders to those fleeing oppression, as we once did during the Cuban diaspora, South Florida enriched itself with new forms of art, music, language and gastronomy.

For the cost of 13 cents a month, public television counters monopolized, for-profit television that monetizes light entertainment while too often ignoring cultural and intellectual enrichment. Public television serves communities that privately held monopolies ignore: children, the seriously minded, those interested in unpopular views and those seeking to explore a broad world for the satisfaction of inquiring minds. The monopolization of vast media outlets is countered by the small yet significant voice of public broadcasting.

We are witnessing the shrinking of public services such as mail delivery, education, national parks, healthcare and consumer protection and the ending of the “fairness doctrine” (giving equal time to both sides) and the “Citizens United” decision (money as free speech).

Do we want the diminution of public broadcasting, leaving a smaller space for the public’s share of important ideas and issues?

Phil Beasley,

Plantation

Medical duty

The confusion in health care got worse after Gov. DeSantis and Surgeon General Ladapo said they would end vaccine mandates in Florida. Ladapo even said such mandates are similar to slavery. That is ridiculous.

If a parent does not want to follow the vaccine schedule, that is between them and their children, but parents will have to answer to them some day if their health is damaged. To protect these children, opt outs should be in writing and signed by these parents.

Doctors, pharmacists and nurses all took an oath that the main purpose of their profession is on their responsibility to patients. Teach your patients what is the best scenario for them to achieve the best outcome. And follow the science, not politics.

For our professional organizations, such as the Florida Medical Association, the Pharmacist Association and the nursing organizations — speak out! Remind your members of their responsibilities toward their patients. After over 40 years of paying dues to you, it is the least I expect.

Al Collazo,

Kendall