Thread by @timkmak

Florida state health officer put on administrative leave for encouraging own public health employees to get vaccinated

“I am sorry but in the absence of reasonable and real reasons it is irresponsible not to be vaccinated,” he wrote

google.com/amp/s/www.orla…

“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" said an agency spokesperson

The state health officer, Dr. Raul Pino, is a Cuban refugee who started by picking blueberries in CT but earned his masters in public health

google.com/amp/s/www.orla…

Another excerpt of the email -- for which he has been apparently suspended -- has him writing to employees:

“I have a hard time understanding how we can be in public health and not practice it.”

wmfe.org/pino-put-on-le…

"He wrote that he had an analyst run vaccination data for employees, and that out of the 568 active staff at the department, only 77 had received a COVID-19 booster, 219 had two doses of the vaccine and 34 had only one dose."

google.com/amp/s/www.wftv…