Florida Surgeon General: Data Did Not Support Lockdowns, Mass Masking as a ‘Cure-All’

Throughout the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, the data has not backed extremist policies such as extended lockdowns and mass masking, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said during Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) roundtable discussion on ending “COVID theater” on Monday, where he noted the mental gymnastics the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has employed in updating its guidance.

The roundtable featured Ladapo, DeSantis, and physicians nationwide, all of whom discussed the importance of ending COVID theater “once and for all.”

“We’ve had a lot of people with great degrees hang their reputations on the false statement — and I say false based on what we see in terms of the data — that the lockdowns or the mask mandates or the vaccine mandates would be a cure-all,” Ladapo said during the roundtable discussion.

“And you look at the data, you know these things go around on the internet, and you sort of look at the rise in cases and the fall in cases of different locations in this country, outside of this country that have implemented different mandates,” he said.

“And you know, if there’s a difference, if there’s an appreciable difference, I’ve yet to see it,” he said. “And that’s been the reality.”

DeSantis pointed out that it has been extremely difficult for everyday Americans to find the true data throughout the pandemic. For instance, if there was a study showing that masking children in school is not really beneficial, he said, “that was not something that corporate media outlets wanted to discuss.”

“When the Danish mask study came out, for the general public, it showed no benefit; that was not something that was discussed. And so what we had to do in Florida was really work hard to find the actual data, look at the studies, and consider those regardless of if the media wanted to,” he said.

“But then if there was something that was kind of half-baked that supported the narrative, there would be blaring from the headlines about how important this is. I mean, things like saying that, you know, the pandemic could end in six weeks if just 90 percent of people wore a cloth mask and all of these other things that were constantly trotted out with very little actual rigor behind them,” he added.

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