COVID-19 Vaccine Card – Courtesy: Shutterstock – Image by vovidzha
The DeSantis administration’s allegations that revised COVID-19 vaccines have “not been proven to be safe or effective” and that the shots shouldn’t be recommended for those under the age of 65 are being refuted by a former surgeon general of Florida.
The COVID vaccines are still “very, very safe, and have a really proven efficacy, particularly against preventing severe disease,” according to Dr. Scott Rivkees, the former Florida surgeon general during the early years of the pandemic, who spoke to ABC News.
“If they say that COVID vaccines are not safe and that they are not effective, the onus is on them to show those data,” Rivkees said.
Federal health authorities advised last week that updated COVID vaccinations be given to everyone over the age of six months.
“I will not stand by and let the FDA and CDC use healthy Floridians as guinea pigs for new booster shots that have not been proven to be safe or effective,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a statement Wednesday. “Once again, Florida is the first state in the nation to stand up and provide guidance based on truth, not Washington edicts.”
The new COVID-19 vaccines were defended by Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who said in a statement that the shots “are proven safe; they are effective, and they have been thoroughly and independently reviewed by the FDA and CDC.”
“Public health experts are in broad agreement about these facts, and efforts to undercut vaccine uptake are unfounded and dangerous,” the statement added.
These weren’t new vaccines, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement to ABC News.
“To clarify, these are not “new vaccines”…COVID-19 vaccines have undergone—and continue to undergo—the most intense vaccine safety monitoring in U.S. history. Additionally, COVID-19 vaccines have an established track record of safety and effectiveness, from the large-scale clinical trials conducted prior to initial authorization and licensure to real-world evidence following their use,” the FDA said in part of a statement provided to ABC News.
According to CDC data, around 25 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the state of Florida occurred in people under the age of 65, according to Rivkees. Federal health authorities assert that the advantages of vaccination protection outweigh any potential disadvantages, despite the fact that there is still a lower chance of severe illness in younger populations.
“When you look at the data, particularly the pediatric data of younger individuals who get severe COVID to the point where they can succumb to the virus, more than half of those individuals don’t have underlying medical conditions,” Rivkees said.
A Florida Department of Health investigation from last October, according to the state’s current surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo, “showed an increased risk of cardiac-related death among men 18-39 following COVID vaccinations.”
The study drew criticism from the scientific community, with many vaccine specialists claiming that it was ill-conceived and dangerously deceptive.
The Tampa Bay Times got drafts of Ladapo’s study, which showed that Lapado allegedly suppressed data to suggest that immunizations represent a bigger health risk for young males than they actually do. This led to further investigation of Ladapo early this year.
When the drafts were initially reported by Politico, which also carried a statement from Ladapo, it said: “To say that I ‘removed an analysis’ for a particular outcome is an implicit denial of the fact that the public has been the recipient of biased data and interpretations since the beginning of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine campaign.”
In addition, Ladapo had advised last year that children might not benefit from the COVID-19 vaccine because of the low risk of serious illness, preexisting immunity, and possible myocarditis risk.
“It’s not clear that the previous concerns expressed by Ladapo about myocarditis have solid footing,” Rivkees added.
According to the CDC, myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle. According to the organization, it has only seldom been recorded and typically affects young adult males a few days after receiving a COVID-19 immunization.
“The data clearly showed that in individuals, the risk of myocarditis is much, much greater from COVID, than from the vaccine. And the data that were recently presented at the [CDC] meeting, show that with the boosters that were out this last fall the risk of myocarditis was extraordinarily rare,” Rivkees said.
According to Rivkees, COVID-19 has caused more than 80,000 deaths in the state of Florida, some of which would have been avoided with the use of immunizations.
“Those of us in public health, those of us in health care should do everything we can to keep individuals safe and healthy, especially when these vaccines have such a great safety profile,” Rivkees said.
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Chris began his writing as a hobby while attending Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. Today he and his wife live in the Orlando area with their three children and dog.
