Florida Surgeon General Ladapo: Why I’m Not Recommending the New Boosters

[RUSH TRANSCRIPT BELOW] In this episode, I sit down with Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. He recently issued new state guidance for COVID-19 boosters.

“We are reminding Floridians and people around the country and really around the world that these are these are not products that we recommend they put in their bodies,” he says.

We dive into the latest studies and data surrounding the COVID-19 boosters and discuss why Florida’s guidance differs from that of the federal government.

“People are pretending that they can continue skating along with the clinical trials that happened four years ago to justify approvals today,” says Dr. Ladapo.

We also look at other health concerns facing Floridians, from the recent Measles outbreak to upcoming ballot measures relating to abortion and marijuana.

We reached out to the CDC and FDA to get their response. An FDA spokesperson replied via email: “The FDA strongly disagrees with the State Surgeon General of Florida’s characterization of the safety and effectiveness of the updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccination is safe and effective and continues to be the cornerstone of COVID-19 prevention. The updated COVID-19 vaccines meet the agency’s rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality.”

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

Jan Jekielek:
Dr. Joseph Ladapo, such a pleasure to have you back on American Thought Leaders.

Dr. Joseph Ladapo:
Thanks very much, Jan.

Mr. Jekielek:
Recently, you issued guidance advising against the use of this new batch of the Covid-19 genetic vaccines. Please explain your thinking.

Dr. Ladapo:
Sure. I have been really mesmerized by the degree of gaslighting that’s happening on the part of the CDC and FDA who are cheerleading these new vaccines for people as customers as young as six months old. And they’re cheerleading in a way that makes it seem normal. But people should understand that we are actually an outlier here.

You can look at countries in Europe, and I don’t know that a single country there encourages these new mRNA boosters for children or for young people. I mean, there might be one, but basically they’re really focused on people who are older and or have comorbid conditions. And really beyond that, it’s not normal to be recommending them in European countries. In this country, I mean, it’s completely insane. There’s no data.

Literally, there is zero data for these boosters in terms of clinical data showing that they will do even a drop of good, and they’re being promoted like everyone should get them. It’s just the most bizarre situation we’re in right now. It is gaslighting at the highest levels. And it was just important to do a little reality check for people and just remind people about what the data actually show?

First of all, again, there’s no clinical data that shows a benefit. People should know about these new ones and people should know that what’s happening now, and it’s been happening now for a few years, is completely abnormal. When the Covid-19 vaccines were first approved, there were definitely issues with the clinical trials, but at least there were clinical trials and people had something to talk about. With the boosters, you had advocates who were deferring or referring to the initial clinical trial data, but there’s obviously a huge problem with that.

And we actually see that problem with new studies of Paxlovid. The original clinical trials of Paxlovid for Covid-19 treatment showed benefit in many populations. But now you have a population of people who almost entirely have some degree of immunity to Covid-19 and the Paxlovid studies aren’t showing a benefit anymore. It’s just not clear that anyone is benefiting. The same is almost certainly true for these mRNA Covid-19 vaccines. In fact, the story is worse because their side effect profile is much worse. But that’s the problem—people are pretending that they can continue skating along with the clinical trials that happened four years ago to justify approvals today.

Mr. Jekielek:
What is the uptake of these genetic vaccines these days look like?

Dr. Ladapo:
Very low. I actually haven’t even seen the latest numbers in Florida. I would be surprised if they even break 10 percent in terms of that threshold. It’s very low, thank goodness, because these are very bad vaccines for people’s health.

Mr. Jekielek:
It’s been quite a while since we’ve talked about these in detail, at least from the beginning of this year. Why do you believe that? Someone who is skeptical may ask how a product could be out there that isn’t good for your health. Please explain how you came to that conclusion and why it is valid today.

Dr. Ladapo:
Thank you for that question. I want to acknowledge there are a lot of people who have a reaction of opposition immediately. They may think that someone like me or other people with similar opinions may be voicing those for political reasons or for some other agenda, and I understand that. I completely get that and certainly there’s a lot of that happening out there. I care primarily about health. That’s my primary motivator for everything I’ve said or done as the Surgeon General of Florida.

I do recognize that some people are just so opposed to someone with a different opinion that it’s just a non-starter even listening to them. Irrespective of that, listen. You don’t have to agree and you don’t have to change anything that you’re doing or change any decisions. But, you know, I invite you to listen. I invite you to talk about and have conversations about it, whether that’s with friends or doctors. I invite you to take good care of your health because that search for good health is an important search that almost all of us are on.

In terms of some of the reasons I have concerns, I want to first start by addressing this notion that you often hear when someone brings up an adverse event, such as myocarditis, inflammation of the heart. Often people say, that’s true, but it’s more common with the virus. It’s more common with Covid. And sometimes that is true, that some condition is more common with Covid. That’s actually not always true.

For example, with myocarditis, it actually seems to be that if you take a cohort of people, of young people, particularly young males, and you leave half of them alone,and for the other half you give them Pfizer or Moderna mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, the half that got those vaccines is going to be in worse health in terms of cardiac issues than the half that didn’t. But the distinguishing thing to remember here, and I don’t think there’s any debate about this, is that it’s actually not a one or the other situation. In this situation, we’re not talking about something like the measles vaccine.
So the measles vaccine is highly protective against a person developing
an infection that is clinically significant. That’s how we used to think about vaccines working.

This is not that everyone knows that everyone gets Covid. You know, you get the vaccine, you get Covid. In fact, some studies show that you actually over time get more Covid, which is another major issue. And if you don’t get the vaccine, you still get Covid. I want to invite people to put aside the notion that’s not the case. It’s usually both. Now, we have multiple studies; Cleveland Clinic, Saudi Arabia, South America, and other sites in America showing that after three months, four months, or five months, the people who are receiving boosters have a higher incidence of Covid-19.

The finding now is something that has been shown in different countries with different cultures in different parts of the world. And in fact, there are also studies that show that the type of immunoglobulins, the antibodies that are in our bodies that are produced by people in response to any type of potential infectious insult or in response to a vaccine change when people receive boosters. And they change in a way that suggests that those people become more tolerant of the infection, which would partially explain why people may be developing a higher incidence or higher risk of developing Covid-19 over time after the boosters. If you care about people’s health, you should care about this and you just have no discussion about it.

So it’s a health problem and it’s also a moral problem. A moral problem with the leadership and much of our public health infrastructure in this country. So that’s one piece that is a major concern.Another piece resonates with what you hear people often or not, or at least sometimes talking about, which is a concern that these Covid-19 vaccines are causing people to be more likely to develop other evidence of immune dysregulation. So recently there was a paper, a study that was published that used Korean data that demonstrated that there was a higher incidence of things like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, other autoimmune conditions after
Covid-19 boosters.

There are other studies that have looked at that, but this particular study had a very strong study design, and we highlighted that in the guidance that we put out. Another concern that is certainly worth noting is something called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome [POTS]. It’s a syndrome where people become lightheaded, they have problems regulating their heart rate and their blood pressure. They can feel pretty crummy and it affects their physical function. And it’s definitely something that unfortunately happens to people after Covid-19 sometimes. It’s also something that happens to people after Covid-19 mRNA vaccination also.

People compare and say it’s worse after Covid. I should hope it’s worse after a virus than it is after a vaccine. But it being worse after a virus doesn’t make it okay, doesn’t justify the fact that people are getting it after the vaccine too. A lot of people know someone or themselves have developed symptoms like that, that they believe are related to the Covid-19 vaccines. But again, no acknowledgement of vaccine injuries by our public health leadership. It’s a moral tragedy. It’s a moral failure. I have to believe that history will see it that way.

Mr. Jekielek:
What new information has come out in the past, say, year around the use of these Covid-19 genetic vaccines that you can point to?

Dr. Ladapo:
The autoimmune data is relatively new data. There was actually another study from the same database in Korea that was published and demonstrated, actually, an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, but not Parkinson’s disease. And it’s unclear to me whether this is related to the brain fog that people sometimes report experiencing after Covid-19 vaccination, but that’s another relatively new development. There have been other studies too, but in terms of the higher quality studies, those are the ones that come to mind.

We already have had now for a few years studies that show that for some people, unfortunately, the mRNA continues to circulate in their bodies for months afterwards. And spike protein continues to circulate in their bodies for months afterwards after vaccination, which obviously is not a desirable outcome. But there are many other issues. Tinnitus is an issue with people having hearing problems. Another one actually that I remember recently reading related to optic issues, thromboembolic events involving the eyes and the vasculature of the eyes after Covid-19 vaccination. But unfortunately, it’s an endless list.

Mr. Jekielek:
Please summarize this new guidance for us, because I’ve seen it characterized in different ways.

Dr. Ladapo:
The major points are that there’s no clinical trial data, and people should know that, that supports any health benefit from these vaccines, testing these specific vaccines, that there’s been no acknowledgement, to the best of my knowledge, from our leaders at the CDC and the FDA of people who have been injured by the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines. And there’s been really no meaningful acknowledgement of some of these studies that we’ve discussed. They’ve been published in very good journals, journals like Nature’s family of journals. They’ve been published in journals like that
and other very good journals, peer-reviewed studies, and there’s been no acknowledgement of that, which is to say that we are in a completely dishonest climate in terms of policy making and recommendations.

And there are all these harms and in January we made an announcement related to the fact that in terms of the DNA contamination there’s there’s really there’s not been a appropriate assessment of whether the
presence of lipid nanoparticles increases the risk of DNA integration into cells because of the amount of DNA that’s moving into cells. So in light of all of this, we are reminding Floridians and people around the country and really around the world that these are not products that we recommend they put in their bodies. And that’s basically it. And we go into some detail with some references to some of the specific adverse event risks publications.

Mr. Jekielek:
You specifically talked about age 65 and up.

Dr. Lapado:
Yes, it’s a really tragic situation. Because I believe that people who are 65 and older, who either survived their Covid infection, or decided to take the first, the initial vaccines and obviously develop Covid, because everyone gets Covid eventually, and stopped taking any additional vaccines, would be in better health now than the people who’ve continued to take them. This is based on my studies that have shown this increased risk of Covid with booster vaccinations, which implies that the boosters are eventually making people worse off in terms of Covid-19 risk.

Mr. Jekielek:
Let’s say I have relatives who really believe in what the FDA and the CDC says about most things. I want to explain to them about this guidance and its value. If I was in that situation, how would you suggest I tell them this?

Dr. Ladapo:
It’s tough, especially if it’s a loved one, because you want the best for your loved one. And the decision that someone makes, because I love them and I want them to do what I think is going to be in their best interest. But at the same time, everyone has their path in life. And it’s important to recognize, as painful as it can feel, it’s important to recognize that people have autonomy over what they think and what they do.

And I think that before having those conversations, it’s valuable to have that conversation with yourself. Ironically, having that conversation with yourself will actually make you a more effective communicator to your loved one because sometimes investment can be off-putting. It feels like coercion is too strong of a word, but it doesn’t have the same cleanness and clarity as someone who’s simply providing you information. Certainly would be happier if you followed that information, but also respects your right to make whatever decision you want. Actually, that environment is more conducive to someone actually deciding to make a different decision than coming in there with all your passion and on your investment in the choice that your loved one makes.

It helps when people communicate that, hey, I want to share something with you. I’d like to have the conversation because I care about you. But again, if you don’t want to have the conversation, we don’t have to have this conversation. If they’re open at that point to having a conversation, I think the next thing to do would be to just assure them that, hey, my goal is just to provide you with information. You don’t need to feel any pressure or any need to change anything, change what you do, change what you believe. And I appreciate that you are open to me allowing me to provide you with information.

Maybe they have questions, they’ll probably share some of their preconceptions and some of their reasons for hesitancy, especially in an environment, a field that’s so open and doesn’t have all the investment and the tentacles of trying to move you here and shift you over there. And nothing may change, but they would have heard you. That’s really the best you can do in terms of ethical approaches to addressing the fact that people have different opinions.

Mr. Jekielek:
Are there certain things you would say to your relatives?

Dr. Ladapo:
I would say, I know that you receive a lot of information from these news sources. There are doctors who see patients who went to very good medical schools, and actually have a different opinion than the doctors that we see on television. Finally, in my third sentence, I would just share that these doctors think that these vaccines are actually unsafe and are hurting people’s health. If you want more information, I would be happy to share more information with you. That’s what I’d say, something like that.

Mr. Jekielek:
What are the studies that should be happening now to help, you know, understand what’s going on?

Dr. Ladapo:
For one thing, we should do randomized clinical trials and we should follow patients for longer. I mean, It’s the simplest study design. It has the wonderful advantage of being a way to reduce the thing we are saddled with right now, which is biased in terms of the differences between people who choose to get additional Covid-19 vaccines and the people who don’t. They’re very different people, so it’s hard to compare them by just looking at their outcomes. It’s very hard.

In some ways, often it’s impossible to do it in a way that is free of bias, but the randomized clinical trial allows us to do that. Those studies aren’t perfect either, but they provide us with more information that is free of bias. And it would give us not only more information about effectiveness and long-term effects, but it would also give us more information about safety. The money’s there. The resources are there.

These companies have made billions and billions and billions of dollars. What’s not there is the leadership and the moral leadership and clarity to do what is in the best interest of people’s health. A lot of the best safety work is not coming from the United States. It’s coming from other countries. So even more concerted efforts in this country to use study designs like self-controlled case series with large data sets, we could do more of that. We’re not doing a sufficient number of those.

It’s unfortunate. There is unfortunately a feeling on the Left of the political spectrum that bad news about the vaccines hurts them and hurts their legitimacy and their authority, particularly because they, more than the Right, although the Right also, many components of that group, were really often mandating, strongly encouraging, making people’s lives difficult—you can’t eat at this restaurant, you can’t come to the movie theater. For some of them, they view it as a political liability. For other people, particularly people in public health, physicians, I think they are struggling with what I would call threats to their identity.

So it’s very difficult, extremely difficult for people who generally, well-meaning people, come to terms with the possibility that their recommendations or in fact what they force people to hurt those people. Also think about what else you can do for your health. You know, we know some major risk factors like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension
seems to be a risk factor. Addressing factors that make you less healthy, that make you more unhealthy, is probably the best way to fight Covid.
And by the way, it will also improve your risk of, you know, it’ll reduce your risk of cancer, and it will reduce your risk of having a heart attack,
and it will reduce your risk of stroke.

Mr. Jekielek:
If someone ends up having Covid, what are your recommendations?

Dr. Ladapo:
Right now, PaxLovid is an option. Again, the data is not strong, but that is an option. I never recommend remdesivir. Many people don’t know that even though it was given to many patients during the pandemic, right before the pandemic, a clinical trial concluded that used remdesivir for treatment of Ebola, the patients that were randomized to the remdesivir arm were actually terminated in terms of their participation in the trial early because there was evidence that it was causing a lot of adverse effects and it was increasing the incidence and it was increasing mortality. It’s a very toxic drug, so I don’t recommend that.

The other option is steroids too. That’s been shown to be helpful with people who are severely ill, and supportive therapy in general. There is a monoclonal antibody that’s preventive, but it’s not clear that it will. However, it’s still very active against circulating strains. Some people recommend things like famotidine or metformin, and there’s some evidence for metformin. Fluvoxamine is another drug for which there certainly was evidence, pretty good evidence earlier in the pandemic, but it is not clear that it’s as strong now.

Mr. Jekielek:
You’ve been at the helm for three years now. Please tell us about what you’ve learned from the health policies that you have implemented.

Dr. Ladapo:
Great question. One thing I’ve learned is that in the public health community there is much more interest in fitting in than in doing the right thing. People do want to do the right thing, but fitting in and getting along, trumps doing the right thing. That’s especially evident when doing the right thing is unpopular. Sometimes I’ll look at comments on Twitter and and just to get a sense of what people are thinking.

And when some of the comments that really struck me after we made this announcement, someone would say something like every other state official health official knows this, but only Dr. Ladapo is saying something. That’s totally true. It’s not a mystery. Even these other health officials, I seriously doubt they’re running out and getting these vaccines. They’re not getting them, even the older ones. They know that they are bad vaccines, or at least they’re not vaccines that are helping people.

Even if they disagree about the adverse events and the risks, it can be deduced from their behavior that they believe they are better off not getting it than getting it. They’re not getting it, but they’re not saying anything. It’s really sad that almost all of my colleagues choose comfort and safety over courage and righteousness.

Mr. Jekielek:
It’s really kind of almost hard to believe. Are there any states that are consulting with you, taking some of the ideas that you’ve used and the guidance for Florida?

Dr. Ladapo:
Sure, yes. We’ve definitely had states reach out. Not a ton, but a few states have reached out. And I don’t follow things super closely, so I’m not sure how they’re putting some of our conversations into effect.

Mr. Jekielek:
Please tell us about some of the other health realities. One that comes to mind is your guidance around the measles outbreak. which
was different than one might expect.

Dr. Ladapo:
Yes, I’m happy to talk about measles for the people in your audience
who have read the news stories. Oh my gosh, that guy was sending people with measles into schools and everyone was getting measles and how could he possibly do that? And that is a very understandable impression to have after reading the news articles. And I want to invite people to open themselves up to the possibility that they may not be getting the full story.

So measles is extremely contagious, as we all know, extremely contagious. And in terms of protection, there are really two ways. One way is through prior infection and the other way is through measles vaccination. Fortunately, both of those ways provide high levels of protection, very high levels of protection against developing measles. And one other point to keep in mind that’s important is that measles can be particularly
dangerous for pregnant women. We had a measles outbreak in a school in South Florida. And most of the kids at that school, I don’t remember the exact percentage, but over 90 percent, I believe, had some degree of protection from measles, whether from vaccination or from prior measles.

What the CDC advises is that when there is a measles outbreak in a setting, in a school, the kids who did not receive the measles vaccine should stay home. The period of time is something like 21 days. It relates to how long people are contagious with measles, both before they develop a rash and afterward when they have a fever and a rash and
things like that. And that’s the recommendation. Obviously, that’s an extremely long time. That’s tough on families and extremely disruptive, disruptive to the kids’ education and social relationships.

So what I said was very simple, which is to let the parents decide. Let them choose whether their kids go to school or not. I mean, this is not complex policymaking here. For that position, I was lambasted. And in all these stories, everyone is getting measles. You would think that there was this measles apocalypse happening in South Florida. It’s important to know that overall, there were something like 10 cases of measles. That was it. It might have been a little smaller than that.

First of all, the recommendation worked in the sense that families were able to make the choices they wanted to make about kids going to school or not. And again, the vaccine or prior infection is highly protective. So people who had a history of either one of those, were at the very least safe or at the most safe, but at the very least weren’t being exposed to any risks that are unusual, you know, any risks that are different from the risks that we typically experience just walking around in the mall.

I personally believe that that’s how outbreaks should, with the exception of extraordinary circumstances, be handled in terms of putting as much responsibility, personal personal responsibility and choice in the hands of people in the community. You provide education, you provide resources, you provide medication, you provide preventive therapies, if those are available, and then you let people make their decisions. Again, with rare exceptions, that is the most auspicious path for managing public health infectious disease risk.

Mr. Jekielek:
Often there is guidance issued with these genetic vaccines. Your guidance is to not use these boosters. In this case, your assessment was that it’s totally up to the parents. You weren’t giving them any guidance as to what was the better thing to do.

Dr. Ladapo:
Right.

Mr. Jekielek:
Why were you so sure it wouldn’t outbreak?

Dr. Ladapo:
I wasn’t sure, because I can’t see the future. But we did provide the parents with information we felt would help them make an informed decision. So we provided them with information about the measles vaccine. Our public health departments visited schools and also offered vaccinations in other locations in the community to anyone who wanted it. So at this
point, if you are a parent and you know the data on effectiveness and you have access because of the community and you choose not to, you’ve made a decision that’s informed based on your preferences. Your body doesn’t belong to Dr. Fauci. Your body is yours to make a choice about in terms of what you put into it. Parents get to make that choice for their kids until their kids are older. So I wasn’t certain, but I was certain that it was the right thing to do to put the power in the hands of parents.

Mr. Jekielek:
Is this then a high priority for your administration to basically create a culture of the parents or individuals themselves taking more responsibility for their own health?

Dr. Ladapo:
Totally. That is the best way to live life, to take as much responsibility for things as possible. I know Governor DeSantis feels very similarly, and he’s an enormous advocate for parental rights. Parental rights and personal responsibility go hand in hand. It’s such an important concept. And boy, society suffers when there’s less personal responsibility. They need to learn that it’s really important.

A key part of living a happy life is taking on responsibility for your life, for your actions. You’re looking to be blaming this person and that person, which we saw during the pandemic. Everyone else is responsible for my risk of getting sick. So you wear that mask and you take this vaccine and you do this and you do that. Well, the world goes to hell, you know, in a hay basket. It’s a miserable place when people don’t take as much responsibility as possible for themselves.

Mr. Jekielek:
Your decision was that it’s more important to give people a sense of personal responsibility based on the best information they can be given, rather than to guarantee safety.

Dr. Ladapo:
I would say it’s more respecting people’s autonomy and their responsibility for their own lives and, you know, the pursuit of safety is a good thing, but has to be done thoughtfully. The pandemic is such a terribly beautiful example of that. How many more people, how many more kids, picked up drugs, alcohol, marijuana, other drugs, how many more of them will be worse off not only now but a decade, two decades, and three decades from now because of some heartbreaking zealots who were seeking safety
and closing down their schools and keeping them closed for long periods of time. You really need to approach safety in a very thoughtful way.

Mr. Jekielek:
Because there is a cost and benefit to every policy.

Dr. Ladapo:
Yes, absolutely.

Mr. Jekielek:
There are multiple other vaccines that are being developed using these genetic platforms. What are your thoughts on that?

Dr. Ladapo:
There are many clinical trials right now, and I think it’s a bad thing. My hope is that we stop this tide and really learn more about what we’re doing before these companies that are marching off to make another billion dollars here or billion dollars there get their way. They’re alternatives. You don’t have to use this novel platform that is not fully understood. Where there is no other alternative, I think that there’s more space to play, if you will, in terms of experimenting. But the whole thing stinks. It sets a terrible precedent that you can bring in this new technology and just run as fast as you can with it, safety be damned, and you know and start putting it into human beings. It’s a bad precedent.

Mr. Jekielek:
In some cases, it’s like there’s an inordinate focus on safety, and in other cases there’s not enough focus on safety. Do you have a sense of when each of those scenarios happens?

Dr. Ladapo:
People have called that out, physicians have called that out, scientists have called that out, particularly with the FDA, where it just seems like the bar is this high for this drug, this high for another drug, and it’s this high for something else. I think that it’s important to always prioritize safety, but you know to consider costs and benefits and also to consider the patient situation.

That even brings up this issue of the right to try. I tend to
favor it. I think you have to again be very careful because when people are desperate, it may not be ethical to be participating in certain options just
because desperation is in some ways a form of coercion. Sometimes it feels like the drug that has the better marketing team shapes where the
emphasis is.

Mr. Jekielek:
This isn’t the only issue you’re dealing with as Surgeon General in Florida. There’s a couple of pretty significant health amendments on the table. Please tell us about those.

Dr. Ladapo:
There are two amendments that are receiving a lot of attention right now in Florida. One of them has to do with abortion and the other has to do with marijuana. I’m going to paraphrase here, but the abortion amendment basically states that abortion won’t be restricted before viability or to protect a woman’s health, and can be provided by a healthcare provider, and does not require consent for minors. Really, it says that there’s notification,
which isn’t the same thing as consent for a minor.

And the marijuana amendment removes any restrictions, legal penalties or anything from the use of marijuana publicly. And that’s another one. Primarily, my understanding is that it’s been funded by a large company that’s in the marijuana space, including the medical marijuana space. My understanding also is that that particular law doesn’t allow people to legally grow it in their backyard, so it requires that they purchase it from specific sources. So those are two amendments. It’s going to be a very interesting November, no matter what the outcome is of these amendments.

Mr. Jekielek:
In Florida, the people will vote directly on each of these. If these are constitutional amendments, is it 60 percent bar?

Dr. Ladapo:
I believe that’s correct. I believe it’s a 60 percent bar that has to be reached. I may be wrong on that, but I believe that’s correct for a constitutional change to happen.

Mr. Jekielek:
What would the impact of these be on your work?

Dr. Ladapo:
I don’t know if it will impact my work. It may impact my work. Particularly with marijuana and other substances too, there’s a lot of, hey, there is misinformation about those drugs and their effects on people’s health. I want to say that I’m definitely not personally supportive of anyone going to jail for having marijuana and that’s not that’s not up for contention. That’s not an issue in Florida.

The major issue is that there are health costs that come with some of these issues that really don’t receive sufficient sunlight. There are also societal costs with some of these issues. I don’t even want to single out marijuana. It’s really something that is relevant to all substances, whether it’s marijuana or alcohol or even caffeine. There are many medical issues with marijuana.

One that is very important is that in young people, particularly young males, there’s very good evidence now that it increases the risk of schizophrenia and other psychosis, which is terrible. It’s just a terrifying and tragic outcome from someone using a drug that they probably believe is harmless. That seems to be very clear, both in males and females, much more so in males. Early use of marijuana seems to increase the risk of schizophrenia. Marijuana, also kills brain cells. There’s good evidence for that too. With long-term use, people’s IQs tend to drop.

There’s also good data from states that have legalized it and people are using it more, that it also increases traffic fatalities. That’s probably not a surprise, right? If the substance is available and people use it, sometimes they get behind the wheel, and that can impair their judgment and their driving skill. Unfortunately, people can get injured and people can die. There are multiple studies that support all of those findings.

I personally believe that it’s not in our interest to be encouraging the use of substances. I’m not judging anyone and people do what they have to do.
But I know from my experience that if you can get on a path where you’re addressing the underlying issues—the stress, the discordance, the conflict, the fear, the pain that’s causing you to want to separate—there’s a much bigger payoff at the end of that road than just using substances.

We mentioned the abortion amendment. And right now, the law in Florida prohibits any abortions after six weeks with some exceptions. And some of the exceptions may require two physicians, and sometimes that’s an important thing to have. Things like the tragic situation of rape or incest, and a mother’s health. And there may be others. I haven’t read the statute recently. But even more importantly, if you’re a minor, you just need to notify the parents, and you don’t even need the parents, the parents don’t even need to be involved because it’s a notification. So it can occur after the fact. It’s not consent, which has to happen before a procedure occurs.

I don’t know how to feel about the current situation, because the issue of abortion is really only going to have losers, in the sense that everyone loses. It is whether it’s the right of a person, in this case a woman, to control what’s happening with her body or the right of a small being to live. My sense is that probably the most virtuous path is to find a path that minimizes how much loss there is, and minimizes the harm, if you will.

My sense is that restrictions that literally push people into one extreme or another are worse than something that tries to balance the two against each other. And they leave people in a position where they feel like they have to choose an extreme. There’s nothing in between. There’s no other alternative for them. So you end up with one extreme or the other.

So that translates into a certain time period when a woman’s autonomy prevails. And after that time period, my opinion is that the child’s interest in life should prevail. And it’s completely imperfect, but I think that it creates more justice and more virtue than the extremes, which right now is what Florida voters have to choose between in November.

Mr. Jekielek:
Any final thoughts as we finish up?

Dr. Ladapo:
It’s such an interesting time in history and an interesting time to be alive. I’m grateful to The Epoch Times and to you, Jan, for your interviews and your investigations and for the insights that you’ve uncovered over these past few years. We are not done yet. This story is still being written.

Mr. Jekielek:
Dr. Joseph Lapado, it’s such a pleasure to have you on the show.

Dr. Ladapo:
Thank you very much, Jan.