After Encouraging COVID Vaccine, Orange County Health Dept. Director Put On Leave: Report

ORANGE COUNTY, FL — Dr. Raul Pino, director for the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, has been placed on administrative leave for encouraging his employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Pino emailed health department staff members in Orange County on Jan. 4 encouraging them to get vaccinated or boosted against coronavirus, WMFE reported.

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

According to WFTV, Pino had an analyst review vaccination data for employees. Of the department’s 568 active staff members, only 77 had received a COVID-19 booster. Data also showed that only 219 workers had two doses of the vaccine and 34 had just one dose.

The director told employees their vaccination rate was “pathetic.”

Pino wrote, “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 and we are not even at 50% pathetic.”

In a statement to the Orlando Sentinel, Weesam Khoury, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health, said, “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, and the Florida Department of Health is conducting an inquiry to determine if any laws were broken in this case. 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.”

Pino was appointed director of FDOH in Orange County in May 2019. Before that, he served as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health starting in December 2015. He was also the director and assistant director of the city of Hartford’s Department of Health & Human Services.