Fla. Surgeon General: Time to ‘unwind’ Biden admin’s ‘testing psychology’

by mcardinal

Chris Lange, FISM News

 

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Lapado blasted the Biden administration for perpetuating a “fantasy” that COVID-19 can somehow be eradicated “by just doing more testing.”

Speaking at a Tuesday press conference alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Dr. Lapado said testing should be based on “risk factors” and argued that the administration’s tunnel-vision focus on testing has actually caused more harm than good. “I’m waiting for more people to realize it’s completely failed,” he said, adding that the “testing psychology” promoted by federal leadership has been particularly harmful to children, a result he called “unacceptable.”

“In fact, for people like young people who have no risk factor or people who are on their third test in a week … those situations not only don’t improve clinical outcomes, they actually sometimes worsen clinical outcomes,” Ladapo explained. “Unfortunately, the federal leadership made it such that those situations made the outcomes much worse. A great example of that is all the healthy kids that tested positive or had an exposure to someone with COVID-19 and ended up staying away from school for a week, 10 days or two weeks.” Lapado also pointed to published studies showing the injurious effects lockdowns have had on American children, saying, “And we’re stopping it here in Florida.” 

The state’s new risk-based testing guidelines are more likely to “change outcomes” and alleviate shortages than the mass-testing approach adopted by the White House, according to Lapado, who cited an example of prioritizing testing for an elderly grandmother over a healthy, school-aged child.  

The new guidance out of Florida comes as the nation grapples with a massive shortage of coronavirus testing kits while infections continue to surge in record-breaking numbers.

The Biden administration recently announced plans to purchase 500 million kits and distribute them to American households this month, though the President refused to answer questions about the status of the plan or how it will be implemented during a Tuesday press briefing.

Critics, however, say needless testing is fueling the testing shortage and doing little to stop the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, federal leadership continues to ignore natural immunity epidemiology and the fact that symptoms presented by the latest Omicron variant appear to be mild. 

The Biden White House has clashed repeatedly with Gov. DeSantis over issues such as vaccine choice, lockdowns, mask mandates, and remote learning for children, even singling him out in press briefings. President Biden in September said DeSantis and other Republican governors who did not fall in line with federal pandemic guidelines should “get out of the way.”

DeSantis, however, is not backing down. The governor on Monday renewed his call on the Biden administration to provide monoclonal antibody treatments to the people of Florida.  

“Prior to the federal government takeover of the monoclonal market, Florida successfully distributed approximately 30,000 doses per week when we managed our own supply,” DeSantis said. “The state has more than $800 million available to quickly deploy monoclonal antibody treatments throughout the state, and the only thing holding us back is the insufficient supply of treatment from the federal government. After failing to ‘shut down the virus,’ the Biden administration has come to the realization that there is not a federal solution to COVID-19, and releasing the federal stranglehold on these effective treatments is a good first step.”

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