Floridians' health placed at risk by false information

As a member of the conventional medical community, I cannot stand idly by while Floridians' health is being placed at risk by false information. I am responding here to the latest announcement by our state “health officials” recommending against anyone under the age of 65 receiving the new COVID-19 vaccine boosters recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

First, we must examine the origin of this recommendation:

Florida Governor Desantis of Florida has placed Joseph A. Ladapo, M.D., Phd, as surgeon general of his state. Despite his apparently good educational background, Ladapo has been branded by many as a quack. He is a member of the “Front Line Doctors” which is an American right-wing political organization that was opposed to measures intended to control the COVID-19 pandemic, such as business closures, stay-at-home orders, and vaccination. The group actively promoted falsehoods about the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines, shamelessly making its first public appearance during a media event on July 27, 2020, where they advocated for the use of unproven and debunked drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin as treatments for COVID-19. Their statements were made without the support of well-established evidence or regulatory approval of these drugs, and the group also alleged that the pharmaceutical industry was intentionally sponsoring studies showing them to be ineffective. Later, this group shifted to anti-vaccine activism with the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines, denying the vaccines' well-established efficacy and safety profiles, and began to provide paid telehealth promotions by their affiliated physicians that would prescribe unproven medications claimed to be COVID-19 treatments.

The directors of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent letters correcting Ladapo's misinterpretations and misinformation about data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). In the letter, they explained:

• The claim that the increase of VAERS reports of life-threatening conditions reported from Florida and elsewhere represents an increase of risk caused by the COVID-19 vaccines is incorrect, misleading and could be harmful to the American public.

• Reports of adverse events following vaccination do not mean that a vaccine caused the event.

• Despite increased reports of these (adverse cardiovascular events), when the concern was examined in detail by cardiovascular experts, the risk of stroke and heart attack was actually lower in people who had been vaccinated, not higher.

• Based on available information for the COVID-19 vaccines that are authorized or approved in the United States, the known and potential benefits of these vaccines clearly outweigh their known and potential risks. Additionally, not only is there no evidence of increased risk of death following existing vaccines, but available data have shown quite the opposite: that being up to date on vaccinations saves lives compared to individuals who did not get vaccinated.

• The most recent estimate is that those who are up to date on their vaccination status have a 9.8 fold lower risk of dying from COVID-19 than those who are unvaccinated and 2.4 fold lower risk of dying from COVID-19 than those who were vaccinated but had not received the updated, bivalent vaccine.

Both the CDC and FDA have stated that Ladapo has repeatedly spread falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines.

But it gets even worse: The independent Center for Inquiry (CFI) is calling for an ethics investigation into allegations that Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo improperly altered key findings in a study on COVID-19 vaccine safety. CFI has sent a letter to the medical boards in Florida, California, and New York, where Ladapo holds licenses, and the University of Florida, where he is a faculty member.

In October 2022, Ladapo announced, contrary to advice issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that young men should not be vaccinated against COVID-19 based on a Florida state analysis of data suggesting an elevated risk of cardiac-related deaths. But draft versions of the state analysis included contradictory data excluded from the final version showing much greater risk of cardiac-related death from COVID-19 than from the vaccine. According to Politico (April 24, 2023), Ladapo personally altered the analysis. Ladapo has also falsely described mRNA COVID-19 vaccines as having “a terrible safety profile” and has opposed other COVID-19 containment measures. Yet he was confirmed for another year as the state’s top public health official on May 4. In his book, “Transcend Fear: A Blueprint for Mindful Leadership in Public Health,” published in August 2022, Ladapo wrote that he “gained the courage to share his opinions on the COVID-19 response after a spiritual awakening from a five-day counseling session in Chinese meridian theory and the qualities of chi.”

In line with Ladapo’s misguided messaging, the Florida Legislature has considered bills that would expand prohibitions against mandatory masking and vaccination, both of which have been proven to combat COVID and many others. The bills would also forbid regulatory boards from disciplining providers who offer quack advice on social media and would require doctors to discuss the pros and cons of “alternative” treatments before treating patients for COVID-19.

Making matters even worse, Governor DeSantis has recently denounced Anthony Fauci, a proven and widely respected medical scientist, stating that, if he (DeSantis) were in the presidency, he would not have tolerated this leader (Fauci), suggesting that he would have replaced him by the likes of Ladapo?

Again, contrary to much misinformation, I advise all Florida residents to follow the advice of our proven national medical leadership!

Morton Tavel, M.D., of Fort Myers is clinical professor emeritus, Indiana University School of Medicine.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Floridians' health placed at risk by false information