Joseph Ladapo

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Joseph Abiodun Ladapo (born December 16, 1978) is a Nigerian-American physician serving as the surgeon general of Florida since 2021. Ladapo is best known for his opposition to COVID-19 mitigation measures and promotion of COVID-19 misinformation. Ladapo has promoted unproven treatments, opposed vaccine and mask mandates, questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, and contradicted professional medical organizations. On September 3, 2025, Ladapo compared all vaccine mandates to slavery: "Every last one is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery." He followed this with: "If we want to move toward a perfect world, a better world, we can't do it by enslaving people in terrible philosophies and taking away people's freedoms." On September 7, 2025, Ladapo said on CNN's State of the Union that vaccine mandates are not an issue of science but of "right and wrong." After immigrating to the United States from Nigeria, Ladapo graduated from Wake Forest University and earned a M.D. and a Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard University. He served as a professor of medicine at New York University before being tenured at the University of California, Los Angeles, prior to his appointment to his current position by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Ladapo has opposed gender-affirming care and counseling for transgender and nonbinary minors. In September 2025, Ladapo, in his capacity as Florida surgeon general, compared vaccine mandates to slavery when announcing Florida's plans to eliminate all vaccine mandates, including those for children attending public schools. This announcement was met with grave concern from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Florida Education Association, among others.