Florida’s surgeon general Joseph Ladapo has given free rein to his own unorthodox views on vaccines and public health
Donald Trump’s promise to upend public health policy across the US by installing Robert F Kennedy Jr as health secretary is resonating in Florida, where experts say the nation can learn from its own experience of a vaccine-denying state surgeon with unorthodox scientific views.
Like Kennedy’s relationship with the incoming president, Dr Joseph Ladapo was championed by, and is closely aligned to, a powerful rightwing political leader – Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor.