Florida’s new surgeon general Joseph Lapado claimed on Thursday it was “a lie” that face masks have saved lives during the pandemic, and that any doctors who claim otherwise are “zombies.” A day after Gov. Ron DeSantis chastised students for wearing masks, Ladapo, barely able to contain his grin at a press conference with DeSantis, said that there was “no high-quality data” to support the idea that masking up saves lives. “It needs to stop and people need to unbelieve it,” he added. Ladapo, who made headlines earlier this month for refusing to disclose his vaccination status, said instead that “being as healthy as you can” was a better tactic for warding off the coronavirus. “Losing those extra pounds, eating a nutritious diet, keeping your vitamin D levels up, those things save lives,” he said. The surgeon general slammed “shaky studies” done by the CDC indicating otherwise, saying that medical professionals who promote masks must have “been taken over by zombies or something.”