At a recent hospital board forum, only two of four showed up. And one was short on specifics.
By Mark Warriner
Original Air Date: July 17, 2024
Host: Who are the Medical Freedom candidates, and what do they want? Medical Freedom activists who first made headlines during the COVID crisis, opposed mask mandates, lockdowns, and vaccinations, and pushed for alternative COVID treatments. Three members elected in 2022 under the Medical Freedom banner already sit on the nine-member Sarasota Hospital Board. And now, Medical Freedom candidates are vying to fill four more seats in the upcoming elections, which would mean a majority and control of the public Sarasota Memorial Hospital. But what do they actually want the hospital to do? WSLR News reporter Mark Warriner tried to find out.
Mark Warriner: The Republican primaries pit a full slate of four mainstream candidates against four Medical Freedom candidates. Last week, the Sarasota League of Women Voters hosted a panel featuring six Republican hospital board candidates, including Medical Freedom activists Tanya Parus and Mary Flynn O’Neill. The event tried to address the public’s concerns, many of which were centered on the Medical Freedom candidates.
The meeting room for 100 people at the Venice library was at full capacity, with an overflow room and closed-circuit TV needed to accommodate the crowd. Attendees were mostly retirees, with a few middle-aged individuals. The panel discussion was generally subdued, though there were occasional outbursts from Medical Freedom supporters in the audience.
When Pam Beitlich addressed past Medical Freedom accusations against the hospital there was audible pushback from the audience.
Pam Beitlich: First of all, I need to really clarify because again, I was there, I was working … We never had a vaccine mandate for employees. Never. And I want to repeat that. Never. No one was ever forced to have a vaccine or get fired. Again, that is something that we thought was very important as far as medical freedom for our employees. My definition of medical freedom is pretty simple. Just like everyone’s been saying, you have the right to decide what you want for your own body. Everybody’s different. Maybe you don’t, as Sarah said, even want an antibiotic. I think that’s your choice. It’s your choice to do that.
I also want to say, though, that we did make changes during COVID, that at the beginning, and please, go back with me and think about this. We had the CDC, the FDA, we had all these people coming out there. Again, I don’t know what you do in the middle of a pandemic, but listen to what the science is telling you. You can say whatever you want, shake your head no for the government. But we were doing the very best we could with everything coming at us. We did make changes. During COVID, you could have Ivermectin if that’s what your physician wanted. We did. We did. Sarah, it is true. It is true. That is true. It’s actually in the report.
MW: One notable candidate was Mary Flynn O’Neill, the sister of Michael Flynn, former National Security Advisor to President Trump. She stated that the government should stay out of hospital affairs and not report patient data to state authorities. She also called for greater transparency about patients’ “outrageous” costs. A fundamental difference was displayed during an exchange between Mary Flynn O’Neil and Pam Beitlich. After O’Neil said “I would keep government out of our face. I would keep government out of our lives,” Beitlich explained it is impossible for Sarasota Memorial Hospital to keep the government out.
Mary Flynn O’Neil
Mary Flynn O’Neil: I would keep government out of our lives. That’s what I would do. That’s why I want to keep this public hospital very intact. We need to find out what happened during COVID, and put me in and I will find out and we will learn from that. But I will keep government out of this because it’s going to come again.
PB: Yes, on top of everything that’s already been said, just a couple of things. First of all, there is no way you will ever, in my opinion, keep government completely out of health care. First of all, your Medicare, so many things are controlled or paid for by the government. Secondly, health care, just like an airline, is highly regulated and you want it to be so that we’re not just making things up as we go along. I see several healthcare providers in the room. It’s there to protect us.
I won’t go into all of the things around COVID. That is something that … I will be honest, I’ve said it before. I don’t wake up every single day worried about national politics. What I’m worried about is Sarasota Memorial. Your local healthcare, what we do right here at this organization, I can assure you, having been there every single day, coming in every morning, you had healthcare providers coming in every day to take care of perfect strangers, people they’ve never met in their life, put their lives at risk. And yes, a few people have spoken out that we didn’t do a great job, and I want to be really clear: I think that’s really an absolute disgrace.
MW: During a “lighting round” session, where panelists answered with only a yes or no, the question was posed, do you agree with the board’s decision to reject State Surgeon General Ladapo’s guidance against COVID-19. 2 out of the 5 panelists said no. They were Tanya Parus and Mary Flynn O’Neill.
Flynn declined to be interviewed by WSLR News, saying she does not talk to media who “bashed” her brother. Tanya Parus did answer questions from WSLR about what she would change at the hospital . She said her priority was safety and nurse’s pay. She said people are scared to go to the hospital and wanted to change that.
Once the discussion went beyond hot-button pandemic issues, the Medical Freedom candidates had few specific suggestions. Their original COVID- demands, such as opposing masks mandatory, vaccinations for hospital personnel, and lockdowns, have become less relevant. They have now morphed into broader demands about safety, transparency, and government involvement. But when asked directly, the candidates rarely mentioned specific policies they would like to see the hospital implement.
That lack of specifics, and eventual exposure to the hospital’s actual operations can lead to unexpected turns. Patricia Maraia, who was elected in 2022 as part of the Medical Freedom slate, has distanced herself from current Medical Freedom candidates. In an op-ed she published this week in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, she calls their approach “disruptive and counterproductive, and it could sabotage SMH’s reputation and ability to recruit skilled physicians. If elected, their tactics could slow or stop progress – and also Sarasota Memorial’s strong legacy of providing high quality care.”
This has been Mark Warriner, reporting for WSLR News.
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