At the height of the pandemic, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis repeatedly touted the COVID-19 vaccine, rightly calling it “safe, effective” and “saving lives.” With hundreds of millions of doses administered worldwide at this time, extensive international data on vaccine safety and efficacy strongly and consistently support DeSantis’ statements. Vaccines are estimated to have saved more than 14 million lives in 185 countries in his first two years of the pandemic alone.
But amid mounting rumors of a 2024 presidential run, DeSantis reversed his stance on the life-saving shot, suddenly questioning its efficacy and making unsubstantiated claims about its safety. In December, his demeanor culminated in calling for a grand jury to investigate allegations of “crime and misconduct” related to vaccines.
While the swing appears to be more about gaining political points than protecting the health of Floridians, DeSantis’ handpicked chief of surgeons, Joseph Radapo, said the governor’s anti-vaccine rhetoric and Since being appointed Florida’s top doctor in late 2021, Radapo has made false claims about vaccines, fostered hesitance against vaccines, and opposed masks. have downplayed the health impact of COVID-19 and promoted ineffective COVID-19 treatments such as ivermectin.
Radapo’s latest anti-public health campaign came last October, as it touted questionable analyzes claiming that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine was linked to an increased risk of heart-related death in men aged 18 to 39. . Peer-reviewed or published in scientific publications and no authors listed — widely criticized by scientists and health professionalssheer garbage” “very misleading,” and “comically badOne of Radapo’s former mentors at Harvard University told The Washington Post: “If I were a reviewer of a journal, I would recommend dismissing it.” arrive at the erroneous conclusion he used as Against mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in young men.
agency smackdown
But Radapo’s efforts to thwart public health didn’t stop at Florida’s borders. Physicians brought misinformation about COVID-19 to the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the agency kindly responded.
In a four-page letter dated March 10, FDA Commissioner Robert Calif and CDC Director Rochelle Wallenski briefly exposed his inaccuracies, falsehoods, and anger, and in his role as a public figure he accused the people of Florida of I took the opportunity to point out what is disappointing. Health officer.
The two federal officials began by educating Ladapo about the many safety surveillance systems the federal government has to track vaccine side effects and potential rare outcomes. Similarly, Radapo parroted misconceptions and inaccuracies regarding a particular system called VAERS (short for Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System). This is an open system that allows anyone, including doctors, vaccine manufacturers and the general public, to report health problems if they believe they may be related to vaccination. Anti-vaccine advocates generally point people to this system, bringing up unverified reports as evidence of vaccine harm, fueling fear and vaccine hesitation.
But of course, just because someone reports a health problem to VAERS doesn’t mean the vaccine actually caused the problem, Warenski and Caliph point out. It is federally mandated to report certain events after vaccination, regardless of whether you believe the vaccine was the cause. Study reports to explore and sometimes dive into a patient’s comprehensive medical record. In fact, most of the reports turn out to be just noise.
“Most reports do not represent vaccine-induced adverse events, but instead represent pre-existing conditions prior to vaccination or underlying conditions that caused the event,” Warenski and Caliph said. In cases that are not easily explained, CDC and FDA compare the incidence of unanticipated health problems in vaccinated people to the background incidence in the population. This will let us know if there are more cases than would normally be expected without a vaccine. For example, a comparison of the proportion of cases of myocarditis and pericarditis (inflammation of the myocardium and surrounding tissue) identified as rare (but usually mild) side effects of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
deadly misinformation
As with any medical intervention, the COVID-19 vaccine has some risks and such rare events. But the benefits clearly outweigh the risks, and the risks that exist are not what his Ladapo claims.
Refuting Radapo’s dubious analysis of cardiac death, Wallensky and Calif say, “Not only is there no evidence of an increased risk of death after mRNA vaccination, but the available data indicate quite the opposite.” cites several studies that collectively show that Date of vaccination saves lives compared to unvaccinated individuals. They also highlighted studies that looked at cardiac events, stating that “the risk of stroke and heart attack is actually low In vaccinated persons, no more” (emphasis theirs).
The CDC now estimates that an unvaccinated person is nearly 10 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than someone with the latest vaccine. A person who is vaccinated but does not receive a bivalent booster is 2.4 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than an up-to-date person.
And with this information, Wallenski and Caliph suggested it’s not so subtle that Radapo’s pranks fueled his hesitancy toward vaccines and, as a result, his job went awry. misleading people by overstating or emphasizing risks without acknowledging overwhelming benefits,” creating hesitancy against vaccines and unnecessarily putting people at risk of death and serious illness. They write. And this is clearly a Florida issue, they added, writing:
as a key public health official [your] The state has a national average of 41% vaccination among older adults, while Florida’s older adults are not vaccinated and only 29% of older adults have the latest bivalent vaccine. You know there is. It is the job of public health officials across the country to protect the lives of those they serve, especially those who are vulnerable. (emphasize theirs).
