In a free society, government would respect that an individual’s health related choices are his own business. There would be no local, state, or national government “health departments” intervening in these matters. All of that would be left to individuals to decide.
Government health departments in America have become appendages of entities such as pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies, hospitals, and medical associations. The health departments have become captured regulators. During the coronavirus scare, health departments also quickly took on the role of tyrannical enforcers of a panoply of quack decrees that violated people’s rights, from closing down businesses to mandating mask wearing to pushing experimental coronavirus shots the health departments insisted were “safe and effective” when, in fact, they were dangerous and ineffective.
Impressively, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has bucked this trend. He has followed a course frequently favoring individual choice in health matters instead of imposing the wishes of special interests via government intervention. Upon his appointment as surgeon general and leader of the Florida Department of Health by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in September of 2021, Ladapo declared that he would put freedom first and oppose the authoritarian measures other health department leaders across the country were then implementing in the name of countering coronavirus. Among actions Ladapo took in pursuance of this declaration was opposing the pushing of the coronavirus shots when virtually every other health department leader in the country was saying everyone should receive them.
On Thursday — New Year’s Day, Ladapo announced “the launch of a new public health initiative” called the Florida 50-Day Challenge. Ladapo went on to describe the initiative as offering “50 days of brief, proven activities focused on health, nutrition, movement, wellness, and stress management.” Each week of the health initiative involves different actions people can undertake to promote their own health.
The Florida 50-Day Challenge appears to be all about things people can do for themselves to enhance their health without the need for the interventions provided by the special interests that have taken over the direction of many health departments. Indeed, the Florida 50-Day Challenge is a threat to the profits of those special interests because people who take steps to improve their own health will tend to have less need for assistance from the medical industry.
With the Florida 50-Day Challenge, Ladapo is helping to demonstrate that people making smart choices can contribute significantly to the advancement of their health. This is a different message than tends to come from the medical industry that often after the fact jumps in with drugs and surgery instead of guiding people to prevent the development of health problems in the first place.
A danger with programs like the Florida 50-Day Challenge is that with time they can morph into something authoritarian. Government is, after all, an institution that routinely uses force to achieve objectives. It is one thing to recommend that people live healthily. It is another to mandate that they attend exercise classes or eat their veggies. But, in its current form, the Florida 50-Day Challenge seems to be a helpful counter to the special interests backed health measures that governments in America regularly advance.
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