ER doctor at Florida hospital is fired after offering medical letters exempting children from mask mandate for $50 each
A doctor in Florida has been fired for offering to sell medical letters to parents to exempt their children from school mask mandates.
Dr Brian Warden, an ER doctor from Leon County, posted in a Facebook group titled Parents Against Masks telling people to send him a private message for the letters.
The recent medical graduate was charging $50 to carry out interviews for the signed waivers, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
Leon County is one of 10 counties statewide which have defied Gov. Ron DeSantis' order banning mask mandates, with K-8 students still required to wear face coverings unless they have a medical exemption.
Dr Brian Warden, an ER doctor from Leon County, posted in a Facebook group titled Parents Against Masks telling people to send him a private message for the letters.
Students walk from iPrep Academy on the first day of school, Monday, in Miami, Florida. Leon County is one of 10 counties statewide which have defied Gov. Ron DeSantis' order banning mask mandates, with K-8 students still required to wear face coverings unless they have a medical exemption.
The Capital Regional Medical Center was contacted about Warden's actions and said it had cut ties with the doctor.
'We act with absolute integrity in all that we do, and it is our expectation that providers behave in a way that is consistent with those values,' CRMC spokeswoman Rachel Stiles said.
'Immediately upon learning of this physician's actions, we began the process of removing him from providing services to our hospital patients,' she said.
One of the posts said he was not carrying out the work affiliated with any hospital and would do the interviews under Dove Field Health, LLC, his own business.
The company was incorporated on July 26, 2021, according to the Florida Secretary of State's website.
Warden defended his action in a Facebook post, claiming he had a right to act independently as a licensed medical practitioner, the Democrat reported.
When asked for comment, he told the paper by text: 'I'm sorry. I'm not supposed to say anything.'
It was not clear if Warden had managed to make any money from the enterprise.
Warden was issued his medical license on February 15, 2021, according to the Florida Department of Health's website.
He graduated from Temple University in May 2018, DOH said.
Over half of Florida's students are enrolled in public schools that will implement mask mandates this coming school year, despite attempts by Governor Ron DeSantis (pictured last week) to make them illegal
As Florida's cases continue to soar, the state reported a seven-day rolling average of 21,706 new cases daily on Saturday
More than half of Florida's students are enrolled in public schools that will implement mask mandates this coming school year - ignoring Gov. DeSantis' order to make the face coverings illegal.
Indian River and Sarasota counties joined Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough, Leon, Alachua, Palm Beach, Orange and Duval in mandating that students mask up for the coming school year.
According to Florida Department of Education enrollment tallies for 2020-21, the 10 counties combine for about 52 percent of the total school population. There were 2,791,687 students enrolled last year, and the combined enrollment of those counties exceeds 1.45 million, according to The Associated Press.
The Fort Lauderdale school's interim principal, Sean Curran, said the school's hands are tied and that the administration is just following the guidance of the Broward County school district.
As Florida's cases continue to soar, the state reported a seven-day rolling average of 21,706 new cases a day last week.
The state also recorded an additional 1,071 deaths, a daily average of 153, in the health department's weekly report.
This brings the statewide total to 2,877,214 cases and 40,766 deaths.