(LifeSiteNews) — The Florida Department of Health (DOH) placed a county official on paid administrative leave after he allegedly criticized his staff for not getting the COVID shots and boosters.
He also allegedly accessed their private medical records to determine the percentage of his staff who had taken the COVID shots.
Dr. Raul Pino, the director of the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, sent a January 4 email that called the county DOH’s vaccination rates “pathetic.”
“I have a hard time understanding how can we be in public health and not practice it! The reasons can be many, but so many of us?” Pino wrote in an email with the headline “Concerned for us and our families.”
He then included a percentage breakdown of the vaccination status of the employees.
“In order to have a better picture on how this current wave could affect us and the people we served, I ask our analyst to run vaccination data for our employee; shocker!” he said. “The total number of active staff for FDOH Orange is 568. It appears that 77 employees (excluding contractors and interns) have received their booster dose of vaccine (SUPER LOW), and 219 employees have a complete vaccine series (not even 50%). 34 have only one dose of vaccine (missing second dose and booster).”
The text in parentheses is original to the copy provided to LifeSiteNews by the state DOH.
“I am sorry, but at this point in the absence of reasonable and real reasons, it is irresponsible no to be vaccinated,” Dr. Pino said. “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 (OC DOH) and we are not even at 50%, pathetic.”
“The Department of Health is committed to upholding all laws and protecting the privacy of our employees’ personal medical records,” Florida DOH Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern told LifeSiteNews. “Floridians place an enormous amount of trust in our Department to keep their medical information private, and we expect our health care staff to live up to those high expectations.”
He said Pino has been placed “on paid administrative leave, and the case was referred to the Office of the Inspector General.”
At issue could be the state’s prohibition on mandating or coercing any employees, public or private, to get jabbed.
A Florida DOH official told WFTV 9 that the “decision to get vaccinated is a personal medical choice that should be made free from coercion and mandates from employers,” in a statement explaining why Pino is on leave. “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.”
LifeSiteNews did not receive a response from the Orange County DOH media team.