Doctor Sells $50 Mask Exemption Letters, Gets Fired

Capital Regional Medical Center removed a recent medical school graduate who offered mask opt-out letters to parents with kids in school in exchange for $50.

Dr. Brian Warden, an emergency room physician, recently promoted mask exemption letters for $50 on Facebook as part of the promotions for the controversial "medical opt-out interview" screenings. His post quickly got a lot of attention after it was shared in the Parents Against Masks Facebook group

In his post, Warden directly asked parents in Leon County, Florida to send him a private message if they needed a medical opt-out letter for their child. In another Facebook post, Warden said he is signing forms under Dove Field Health LLC, a limited liability company not affiliated with any hospital or group. Dove Field is Warden’s own business that was formed on July 26, according to the Florida Department of State website.

Leon County has been resisting Gov. Ron DeSantis' order against mask mandates and has required students in grades K-8 to wear masks unless they have a medical excuse. The school board voted 3-2 in support of the mask mandates despite the threat of their funds possibly being withheld by the Department of Education.

Warden's move to offer parents mask exemption letters came amid the statewide COVID-19 delta variant surge that killed two children in the county within the last month. One of the victims was under 5, and the other was a third-grader studying at Canopy Oaks Elementary School in Tallahassee.

The doctor's offer caught the attention of many people online who vehemently asked for his removal. In response to the public outcry, Alan Keesee, the CEO of Capital Regional Medical Center, informed the board of trustees to remove Warden as their 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. Immediately upon learning of this physician's actions, we began the process of removing him from providing services to our hospital patients," CRMC spokeswoman Rachel Stiles said in a statement to the Tallahassee Democrat.

Warden's Florida medical license was issued on Feb. 15. He graduated from Temple University specializing in emergency medicine in 2018. He spent his residency at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia from 2018 to 2021.

Today, half of Florida's 2.8 million public school students have to wear masks inside their classrooms as the courtroom battle continues, with DeSantis fighting for parents to have the right to decide on whether or not their child should wear a mask.