Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo is reportedly under serious consideration to become the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—a move that could mark a bold turning point for an agency that has come under fire in recent years for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. And if chosen, Ladapo may be exactly the type of disruptive, reform-minded leader the CDC needs to restore credibility, reinforce scientific integrity, and champion the rights of everyday Americans.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is one of Ladapo’s most vocal supporters and made that crystal clear over the weekend, when he publicly urged President Donald Trump to select the Harvard-trained physician to lead the CDC.
“Overhauling the CDC would be beneficial to FL. Joe could do more for FL as CDC Director than as FL Surgeon General,” the governor said in a post on X.
DeSantis agreed with another user who suggested that Ladapo “as CDC Director is the right pick, the transformative pick, the history making pick, the pick that would save the Republic.”
“Dr. Joe Ladapo is all of those things and has the courage and determination to do what’s right when it’s not easy,” the governor declared in a tweet. “Lapado as CDC Director means that MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] is not just an empty slogan.”
It’s not the first time the Florida governor has promoted Ladapo for a top health position—and it’s easy to see why. Since being appointed in 2021, Ladapo has transformed the Florida Department of Health into a hub of medical transparency and individual autonomy. At the height of pandemic hysteria, while many public health officials clung to dogma and mandates, Ladapo chose data over fear, autonomy over coercion, and truth over politics. These are qualities that should be prerequisites for anyone hoping to lead the CDC into a new era.
A former professor at UCLA and NYU, Ladapo earned both his M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard and brought a research-oriented, patient-first mindset to his work in Florida. He rose to national prominence not just for his credentials, but for his consistent opposition to one-size-fits-all COVID-19 policies—especially when it came to mask mandates, lockdowns, and the unprecedented push to vaccinate entire populations with mRNA products that had been rushed to market under emergency use authorizations.
His most controversial—and courageous—stance came in 2023 and again in early 2024, when he called for a complete halt to the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in Florida due to growing concerns over DNA contamination in the shots.
According to Florida Department of Health statements, Ladapo raised alarms about residual plasmid DNA found in both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. He warned that when delivered via lipid nanoparticles, these contaminants could potentially integrate into human DNA, posing unknown long-term risks that neither the manufacturers nor the FDA had adequately studied.
The FDA and CDC have failed to provide the American people with answers about the safety of these products, Ladapo said at the time. He believed Floridians deserved honesty—not political spin disguised as science.
Under his leadership, Florida became the first state to recommend against mRNA COVID-19 vaccination for healthy children and young adults—a position initially met with heavy criticism by federal authorities and mainstream media but later vindicated as more data surfaced about the rare but serious adverse effects associated with the shots, such as myocarditis, pericarditis, and immune-related complications.
Ladapo’s willingness to challenge the CDC on vaccine safety is one reason why he’s both feared by bureaucrats and beloved by freedom advocates. It also makes him uniquely qualified to lead an agency that desperately needs a cultural reset. The CDC’s pandemic-era missteps are well-documented: inconsistent messaging, overreliance on pharmaceutical interventions, sidelining of early treatment research, and its role in fostering a climate of distrust among Americans who were told to “trust the science” while being given false or misleading data.
Ladapo, by contrast, insists on full transparency. During the pandemic, he routinely published raw data about vaccine side effects, hospitalizations, and natural immunity, ensuring that Floridians had access to the information they needed to make informed decisions. In place of mandates, he promoted personal responsibility. In place of censorship, he championed open dialogue. And unlike many of his peers, Ladapo never wavered when it came to preserving medical ethics.
His commitment to parental rights also sets him apart. When a small measles outbreak occurred in Florida in 2024, Ladapo told parents it was their decision whether to send their children to school, despite CDC guidance recommending isolation. And most recently, he led a push across Florida to remove fluoride from municipal water systems, citing studies linking excessive fluoride consumption to lower cognitive performance in children. While critics derided the move as anti-science, Ladapo pointed out that the CDC’s own data on fluoride is outdated and fails to account for modern sources of cumulative exposure.
This forward-thinking approach has earned him admiration far beyond Florida. Dr. David Weldon, a former U.S. Representative and past nominee for CDC Director, publicly backed Ladapo for the role, stating Ladapo should be at the top of President Trump’s list.
The nomination comes at a critical time. Former CDC Director Mandy Cohen, who stepped down amid criticism over her handling of transparency and vaccine injury surveillance, left the agency in an identity crisis. The American public’s trust in public health institutions has plummeted, and the CDC is still reckoning with accusations of politicization, censorship, and conflicts of interest.
Ladapo represents the antithesis of that status quo. He’s not part of the D.C. medical-industrial complex, and he hasn’t profited from the pharmaceutical companies whose influence over federal health agencies has been the subject of growing bipartisan concern. Instead, he brings an outsider’s perspective, grounded in academic rigor and clinical experience—but also rooted in the belief that the government’s role is to serve the people, not dictate their lives.
Of course, not everyone is thrilled about the idea. Some in the medical establishment have labeled Ladapo a “radical,” a “conspiracy theorist,” or “anti-vaccine”—labels often used to silence legitimate scientific debate. But anyone who’s followed Ladapo’s work knows those accusations don’t hold water. He is not anti-vaccine. He is pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-informed consent. He simply believes that people should have the right to weigh risks and benefits for themselves and their families—and that federal agencies must be held accountable when they fail to communicate clearly or act responsibly.
Also in the running for CDC Director is Dr. Michael Burgess, a retired OB-GYN and former Republican congressman from Texas who served on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. While Burgess brings political experience, he lacks Ladapo’s direct involvement in state-level public health administration during a time of historic crisis. His nomination is seen by many as a safer, more conventional choice—but that’s precisely why supporters of reform are rallying behind Ladapo.
If President Trump truly wants to restore the CDC to its rightful place as a beacon of scientific integrity and public trust, he couldn’t ask for a better pick than Dr. Joseph Ladapo. His record speaks for itself. He stood up to pressure, questioned orthodoxy, and stayed true to his oath as a physician, even when it wasn’t politically expedient. And in doing so, he proved that he values truth over reputation, and principle over popularity.
Now, with the CDC facing a pivotal crossroads, it’s time for bold leadership—leadership that puts people first, resists undue corporate influence, and is unafraid to challenge a broken system from within. Dr. Ladapo is that leader. And America would be lucky to have him.
