Warning: Punishing doctors is hazardous to your health | Bill Cotterell
Put aside whatever you believe about COVID vaccinations and face masks, or government mandates.
The suspension of Dr. Raul Pino as head of the Department of Health offices in Orange County was an affront to public health and common sense. It matters for reasons surpassing political prejudice and health policy, sending a dangerous message to policymakers throughout Florida government.
The message: Express an opinion that doesn’t jibe with what Gov. Ron DeSantis espouses in his travels around the state, and your job is in jeopardy. Science and medical ethics be damned, this is an election year and Florida can’t have employees voicing disagreement with the governor’s pandering to the Trump base of the Republican Party — even if they do have “M.D.” after their names.
The University of Florida just got slapped around for trying to stop three experts on political redistricting from sharing their expertise in a voting-rights lawsuit. Do we need physicians defying Republican dogma, too?
A Central Florida public-broadcasting station discovered that Pino was placed on administrative leave for the effrontery of encouraging his employees to get vaccinated. Perhaps Pino was unaware when DeSantis boasts about “the free state of Florida,” he doesn’t mean the free speech state.
“I am sorry, but in the absence of reasonable and real reasons, it is irresponsible not to be vaccinated,” Pino wrote in a message to his staff. He said only 219 of his 568 employees had received two shots.
“We have been at this for two years, we were the first to give vaccines to the masses, we have done more than 300,000 — and we are not even at 50 percent,” he said, terming that “pathetic.”
When reporters started asking the Department of Health about it, the agency cited a law DeSantis got from the ever-compliant Legislature last November. The statute forbids employers, including state and local governments, to require vaccination unless several exemptions are offered to employees.
“As the decision to get vaccinated is a personal medical choice that should be made free from coercion and mandates from employers, the employee in question has been placed on administrative leave, and the Florida Department of Health is conducting an inquiry to determine if any laws were broken in this case,” was the DOH alibi. “The department is committed to upholding all laws, including the ban on vaccine mandates for government employees, and will take appropriate action once additional information is known.”
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The purely scientific, objective Department of Health inquisitors will probably reach a verdict as soon as DeSantis tells them what he wants it to be. But it’s hard to see how Pino violated any law that trumps his constitutional right of free speech, or his Hippocratic oath to use his skills for the benefit of patients, in this case the public.
He didn’t order anyone to get vaccinated, didn’t say “get shots or get fired.” He just expressed his frustration that public-health workers were not acting in the interest of public health.
And he wasn’t even insubordinate about it, didn’t express an opinion of DeSantis pandering to anti-vaxxers in the Republican base.
But anyone who’s ever been in the military knows you don’t get on the wrong side of the sergeant who makes up the duty roster, and you don’t want the colonel to even know your name. Such power is probably magnified in the senior management ranks of Florida government.
Still, that tired old cliché about “speaking truth to power” is to be praised, not punished.
What does purging Pino say to experts in other fields? Will the water-quality scientist in Environmental Protection speak up about bacteria levels, knowing friends of the governor are eager to dump stuff where manatees live?
If some teachers think a piece of legislation hurts students, do they say so — or just go along to get along?
What about the engineer who sees corners being cut on a big construction project — but, hey, the contractor is a major donor to the party, so why make waves?
And if Pino quits or is terminated, what’s the lesson for his successor and all the other medical professionals in county health units? OK, Doc, we need you to fight COVID — but now and then we might ask you to retouch some X-rays.
Bill Cotterell is a retired Tallahassee Democrat capitol reporter who writes a twice-weekly column. He can be reached at bcotterell@tallahassee.com
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Doctor’s suspension sends the wrong message to Florida’s workforce | Bill Cotterell
