In what has become a pattern of spreading vaccine misinformation, the Florida health department is telling older Floridians and others at highest risk from covid-19 to avoid most booster shots, saying they are potentially dangerous.<\/p>\n
Clinicians and scientists denounced the message as politically fueled scaremongering that also weakens efforts to protect against diseases like measles and whooping cough.<\/p>\n
A prominent Florida doctor expressed dismay that medical leaders in the state, leery of angering Gov. Ron DeSantis, have been slow to counter anti-vaccine messages from Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, including the latest covid bulletin<\/a>. Ladapo is a DeSantis appointee and the top official at the state health department.<\/p>\n The bulletin makes a number of false or unproven claims about the efficacy and safety of mRNA-based covid vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna, including that they could threaten \u201cthe integrity of the human genome.\u201d Florida\u2019s guidance generally regurgitates ideas from anti-vaccine websites, said John Moore, a professor of microbiology at Weill Cornell Medicine.<\/p>\n Ladapo did not respond to a request for comment. DeSantis referred questions to the health department, which said the surgeon general\u2019s guidance and citations \u201cspeak for themselves\u201d and pointed to a post he made<\/a> on the social platform X accusing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FDA of \u201cgaslighting Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis has styled himself and his administration as a bulwark against vaccine mandates, lockdowns, and other restrictive public health protections adopted during the pandemic to curb infections and save lives. Covid vaccination has become a partisan issue, with surveys by KFF, the health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News, finding that Republicans have far less confidence<\/a> in the safety and efficacy of the shots than Democrats.<\/p>\n But vaccine historians consulted for this article could not recall any previous state health leader urging residents to shun an FDA-approved and CDC-recommended vaccination. \u201cIt\u2019s unprecedented,\u201d said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n Florida medical leaders should speak out more forcefully against Ladapo\u2019s attacks on public health, said Jeffrey Goldhagen, a pediatrician and professor at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville. Ladapo urged people under 65 to avoid covid shots last year and has rejected public health protocols for fighting measles outbreaks.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you see is a pattern of fear and neglect of professional responsibilities across the state, in part because of the fear of this governor and the vindictiveness of this governor,\u201d said Goldhagen, a former health department director in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n He specifically criticized the Florida Medical Association, a trade group for physicians, noting that Ladapo is a nonvoting member of the group\u2019s board of governors. The association did not respond to emails requesting comment.<\/p>\n The Florida Health Care Association, whose members run more than 600 long-term care facilities, declined to comment on Ladapo\u2019s bulletin. One nursing home chain, LeadingAge Southeast, said it was aware of both federal and state recommendations on covid boosters and encouraged providers to \u201cengage with their residents, families, and healthcare professionals to make informed decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Cherie Duvall-Jones, said the agency \u201cstrongly disagrees with the State Surgeon General of Florida\u2019s characterization of the safety and effectiveness of the updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.\u201d The vaccines met the FDA\u2019s \u201crigorous, scientific standards,\u201d she said, and she urged people to get boosters since the population\u2019s covid immunity has waned.<\/p>\n Among its incorrect claims, the Florida bulletin says the new mRNA boosters wrongly target a viral variant, omicron, that is no longer circulating widely. This is false, since all major variants of covid in the past two years evolved from omicron and subsequent mutations.<\/p>\n \u201cYou start off with that and then you go into head-exploding-emoji territory,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt\u2019s a litany of lies out of the anti-vaxxer playbook.\u201d<\/p>\n Other claims in Ladapo\u2019s bulletin include:<\/p>\n Covid boosters don\u2019t undergo clinical trials.<\/strong> It\u2019s true that covid booster shots, whose mRNA sequences are changed slightly from previous shots, aren\u2019t tested in large trials. Neither are annual influenza vaccines. By the time such tests would be completed, flu season would be over. But the original mRNA shots underwent clinical trials, and as with flu shots, \u201ca lot of evidence has been collected in support of the ongoing use of the vaccines,\u201d said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University\u2019s Rollins School of Public Health.<\/p>\n The shots pose a risk of infections, autoimmune disease, and other conditions.<\/strong> \u201cI don\u2019t know where these claims come from, but they aren\u2019t accepted by the general medical community,\u201d said William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University School of Medicine infectious disease specialist. Serious side effects do occur, rarely, as with any medication. U.S. authorities were among the first to detect rare occurrences of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart tissue, in young adults who got the covid vaccine. Most patients recovered quickly. Myocarditis is more commonly caused by covid infection itself.<\/p>\n The shots could cause elevated levels of spike protein and foreign genetic material in the blood.<\/strong> These concerns, which circulate on social media, have been disproved or have not panned out. For example, the billionths-of-a-gram quantities of bacterial DNA alleged to be contaminating covid shots are dwarfed by our other exposures, Offit said. \u201cYou encounter foreign DNA all the time, assuming you live on the planet and eat anything made from animals or vegetables,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know Dr. Ladapo, but I assume he does.\u201d<\/p>\n Americans face \u201cunknown risk\u201d from too many booster shots.<\/strong> Scientists look at the possibility of \u201covervaccination\u201d every time they study boosters. So far, no safety risks have been associated with multiple immunizations, Schaffner said.<\/p>\n Floridians should get exercise and eat vegetables and \u201chealthy fats.\u201d<\/strong> \u201cThese things will benefit your general health, but none of them will prevent covid,\u201d Schaffner said.<\/p>\n The bulletin urges all Floridians, including older residents, to avoid mRNA vaccines and find alternatives. But it comes off as \u201cnot in good faith\u201d because it doesn\u2019t specifically mention the only non-mRNA vaccine available, from Novavax, Dean said.<\/p>\n Several critics of Ladapo\u2019s bulletin said it read like a tryout for a job in a Trump administration advised by longtime anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has said Trump wants him to help vet senior health officials. Trump has said children receive too many vaccines and suggested that vaccines cause autism, a myth debunked by years of scientific research.<\/p>\n Ironically, although his administration oversaw the triumphantly rapid creation of the first covid vaccines, Trump declined to receive his shots in public, as presidents have done during past epidemics.<\/p>\n Ladapo\u2019s vaccine statement \u201caligns with Project 2025,\u201d Offit said, referring to the conservative Heritage Foundation policy blueprint. While the plan\u2019s authors include officials from Trump\u2019s first term, he has said it doesn\u2019t reflect his views.<\/p>\n The document calls the CDC \u201cperhaps the most incompetent and arrogant agency in the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n Organized resistance to vaccines has existed as long as vaccination itself. Within six months of the release of the mRNA vaccines in December 2020, about 70% of American adults were vaccinated. Those who refused put themselves at greater risk of hospitalization<\/a> or death<\/a> if they contracted covid, studies have shown.<\/p>\n Cheryl Holder, an internist who practices in Miami, said Ladapo\u2019s statements had dampened interest in vaccination overall. People who are blas\u00e9 about covid \u201calso don\u2019t want to take the tetanus vaccine, and they don\u2019t want to take the pneumococcal vaccine, or the flu vaccine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in the disinformation age,\u201d Offit said. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly a lucrative business, more lucrative than the information business. But what really bothers me is when you have people who are credentialed stand up and say these ridiculous things.\u201d<\/p>\n Ladapo, he noted, has medical and doctoral degrees from Harvard.<\/p>\n Healthbeat is a nonprofit newsroom covering public health published by Civic News Company<\/a> and KFF Health News<\/a>. 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