Florida surgeon general slammed for ‘fueling vaccine hesitancy.’ It’s not the first time

Federal health officials have taken aim at Florida’s top surgeon general in a letter criticizing him for fueling vaccine hesitancy, with a reminder that his job is meant to help protect lives, not harm people.

U.S. Food & Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, sent the letter Friday after Dr. Joseph Ladapo, the state surgeon general, sent them a letter in February questioning the safety and effectiveness of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

This also isn’t the first time Florida’s surgeon general has clashed with federal health officials on the COVID response. Here are some of their key differences:

‘Health alert’ over adverse vaccine events

Ladapo, in his letter, raised concerns over an increase of adverse reactions, including life-threatening conditions, recorded after COVID vaccinations in Florida and elsewhere in the country. He said this likely reflected “increased risk” from the COVID-19 vaccines, citing data from the national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

In their letter, the nation’s two top public health officials slammed him, saying his claim is “incorrect, misleading and could be harmful to the American public.”

Anyone can submit a report of an adverse reaction to the VAERS system, they noted, but it doesn’t mean the adverse reaction was caused by the vaccine.

The agencies said there is no evidence of increased risk of death following COVID-19 vaccines and that data shows vaccination saves lives.

“Despite increased reports of these 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,” the CDC and FDA leaders noted.

“It is the job of public health officials around the country to protect the lives of the populations they serve, particularly the vulnerable. Fueling vaccine hesitancy undermines this effort,” they wrote in their letter.

COVID vaccines for young men

In October, Ladapo advised men between 18 and 39 not to get COVID vaccines after a Florida health department analysis found men in this age group had a “modestly increased” risk of cardiac-related deaths within a month of getting an mRNA vaccine.

The analysis, which was not peer-reviewed, was criticized by federal health officials and medical experts at the University of Florida, saying Ladapo failed to weigh the benefits of vaccination against the potential risks.

A committee of College of Medicine professors at the University of Florida wrote a scathing seven-page report, saying Ladapo’s study relied on cherry-picked data to support an anti-vaccine hypothesis. Ladapo, who is a professor in UF’s College of Medicine, may have violated the school’s policy against “careless, irregular or contentious research practices,” the report concluded.

While the risk of myocarditis, a condition that causes heart inflammation, appears to be highest in men between 18 and 39 and teen boys 12-17, with the highest risk after the second dose, most cases have been mild and responded well to treatment, according to an article written by Frank Han, an assistant professor of pediatric cardiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Jennifer Huang, an associate professor of pediatric cardiology at Oregon Health & Science University.

The piece, written first for The Conversation then published by CBS News, noted that “Studies have largely confirmed that the overall myocarditis risk is significantly higher after an actual COVID-19 infection compared with vaccination, and that the prognosis following myocarditis due to the vaccine is better than from infection.”

COVID vaccines for children

In March, Ladapo announced that Florida would no longer be recommending COVID vaccines for healthy kids, a move that shifted the state away from the recommendations of the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics. He cited natural immunity as many school children have already been infected with COVID-19.

Florida’s new guidance says “children with underlying conditions are the best candidates” for the vaccines but that “based on currently available data, healthy children aged 5 to 17 may not benefit from receiving the currently available COVID-19 vaccine” as “there are certain risks to consider that may outweigh benefits among healthy children.”

Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a pediatrician with the University of Miami Health System, criticized the state for initially not pre-ordering COVID-19 shots for children ages 6 months to 5 years old. (The state did go on to order the vaccines.) She had been president of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics when Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis removed her last year from the Florida Healthy Kids board of directors, citing her “political statements.”

The CDC continues to recommend COVID vaccines for people 6 months and older.

As of March 9, nearly 15.5 million children in the United States are reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to state-level reports analyzed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. That accounts for 18 percent of all U.S. COVID cases.

In Florida, there have been 904,793 cumulative child COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, or 12.1 percent of the state’s overall cumulative cases, as of March 9, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.