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Q&A – Florida’s New Surgeon General, Our Schools & Media’s Misinformation
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s entry: Congratulations to our new Surgeon General, one day in the job and the Sun Sentinel editorial staff is already calling for his head.
If you ever have anyone from Dade, Broward or Palm Beach school boards on, here are some questions I am sure the Sun Sentinel staff has never asked nor would any other media.
Besides relying on the CDC recommendations, which are subject to change, what did your system do over the past 18 months to prepare for the students to come back on campus?
All we hear is that the only solution is masking and quarantines if exposed, until the vaccinations for the younger population is approved.
Very aggravating to see press journalists with no knowledge of medicine, criticizing a Harvard educated medical doctor, with a PhD in public medicine for not following the Biden/CDC company line. I totally agree that the teacher unions are setting the policy for our schools and it is sad to see a press that doesn't encourage actual dialogue and discussion with opposing viewpoints.
Bottom Line: Your points are well taken. While very little surprises me with regard to the arbitrary policies of South Florida’s school districts and our news media’s handling of them – contrasted with Florida’s new Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, the speed with which news media and certain school districts moved to attempt to discredit him was remarkable. And the specific example you cited – the piece entitled: The Fear Is Real – of Florida’s new reckless new surgeon general, not only is designed to be a discrediting hit piece on Dr. Ladapo, it also continues blatant untruths. Take this excerpt for example: Ladapo’s arrival is exquisitely timed. Because Florida lags on vaccinations and DeSantis forbids local governments from requiring masks, the state just set a record for COVID-19 deaths, five weeks running. That’s the classic example of the notion that if one repeats a lie long enough people will believe it. It’s blatantly false to suggest that Florida lags on vaccinations.
Florida’s 18th nationally in the percentage of the population immunized with at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Notably, the states are next behind Florida in COVID-19 vaccination rate - Oregon, Delaware, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nevada and Kentucky. All led by Democrats – yet news media from the Sun Sentinel to national outlets will commonly cite demonstrably false information about Florida, in an effort to smear and discredit Governor DeSantis’s pandemic response, while there’s not a peep about these blue states (and many more – those are just the one’s immediately behind Florida) which are both far smaller than Florida and yet far less vaccinated than Florida. And the idea is simple. Attempt to discredit DeSantis and thus attempt to make his pick for Surgeon General out to be a quack - which speaking of the schools is exactly what Palm Beach County Board member Debra Robinson had to say about Dr. Ladapo in last week’s meeting when she said: I don't know, if it's wilding and quacking I tend to think it's a duck. I’ll point out that among other absurdities with her comment is the notion that she referred to Dr. Joseph Ladapo as an “it”. That’s how disgusting and petty these smear merchants are. It’s also why it’s critical that we keep these conversations going, keep the heat on our school districts to serve the educational interests of our children as opposed to their personal political interests. That’s what far too many school board members in South Florida have been allowed to get away with for far too long. It’s taken the pandemic to fully bring the extent of the absurdities and common abuses by these boards and our school districts generally to light. Regarding what school districts have done to attempt to make classroom education safer during the pandemic...
All of South Florida’s School Districts have improved ventilation systems since the onset of the pandemic. That’s happened through a combination of improved filters, upgrading old units and new ventilation strategies which have included commonly running outside airflow before and after school daily. The districts have allocated funds from the American Rescue Plan for these improvements. They’ve also kept sanitation supplies readily available for students and staff – in addition to designated space for those who may need to be observed for potential illness. So, the districts haven’t put all of their eggs in the mask mandate and quarantine baskets. Now, to your final point in which you agreed with my assessment from Friday in which I said this: Who really is behind the CDC’s school mask policy? Is it the CDC? Nope. Not really, that’s because the CDC’s own study of school masking from last year concluded required mask use among students was not statistically significant compared with schools where mask use was optional. That’s why their policy for this school year didn’t include a recommendation for mandatory masking until the American Federation of Teachers pressured the CDC behind closed doors to do it. Viola, the CDC ignored their own science, caved to the leftist cause and what did South Florida’s school districts do? Said they were following the CDC’s guidance over the State of Florida’s - including state law. This was never about science or health. This was about our school districts being controlled by the teachers’ unions. Here’s the key to seeing how this all comes together...
78% of Florida’s public-school teachers are members of a teacher’s union whose parent is the American Federation of Teachers. 86% of grade school teachers are Democrats. The AFT donates greater than 99% of its political donations to Democrats. In “journalism” it’s every bit as pervasive. For those who identify politically, about 90% are Democrats and for those who’re politically active, 96% of money donated to political campaigns is given to Democrats. It’s all pretty explainable once you look at it through that prism. Here you have a hard left teacher’s union setting an agenda based upon a hard left constituency of teachers and being covered by a hard left news media. None of the aforementioned come close to representing the political mix in any of our communities. This has happened over decades because we weren’t minding the store and allowed it to occur. That’s what must change going forward and why it’s critical that all of us, including those who don’t have kids in school but obviously are paying for them, stay informed and engage. The goal must be two-fold. Advocate for the best interests of our children today and replace the majority of the school board members with good candidates in subsequent election cycles.