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(Trends Wide) — Florida Health Surgeon Dr. Joseph Ladapo altered an analysis published by the Florida Department of Health last year to suggest that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines pose a significant health risk to men ages 18 and 39 years old, Politico reported Monday.
Politico said it obtained a document as part of a public records request showing Ladapo’s changes to the eight-page analysis. The changes removed comments saying that a link to a slightly increased risk of heart-related deaths after Covid-19 vaccination “was no longer significant” for multidose vaccines and “there is little suggestion of any effect immediately after of vaccination”. The paper shows an added line that mRNA vaccines may be driving an increased risk of heart-related death in men, especially those between the ages of 18 and 39.
The version made public in October 2022 said that vaccination against covid-19 was “associated with a modest increased risk of heart-related mortality 28 days after vaccination”, and says that vaccines may be driving the risk , especially among younger men.
In a statement to Trends Wide, Ladapo said that it is common for an evaluation of surveillance data to include revisions, that he has “experience and training” in making these decisions, and that the revisions were appropriate.
“To say that I ‘removed an analysis’ for a particular result is an implicit denial of the fact that the public has been the recipient of biased data and interpretations since the beginning of the covid-19 mRNA vaccine campaign,” he said. . “I have never been afraid of disagreement with my peers or with the media.”
The Florida Department of Health supports Ladapo’s recommendations on vaccination for certain age groups.
The Florida analysis was not peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal, but was posted online by the Florida Department of Health and shared in a news release. Based on that analysis, Ladapo and the Department of Health released guidance advising against covid-19 mRNA vaccines for men ages 18 to 39, stating that the “abnormally high risk of heart-related death among men in this age group” probably outweighed the benefits.
Cases of myocarditis and pericarditis, inflammation of the heart and lining of the heart, are rare after mRNA vaccines, although they are more likely to occur among young men. The risk of inflammation of the heart is much higher from covid-19 than from vaccination.
Florida is an outlier in its recommendations against the vaccine for healthy young men and boys; disagrees with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recommendations from other states, and the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Following extensive clinical trials, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared these vaccines for use in people 6 months and older, and the CDC continues to recommend them. Experts and government agencies claim that the benefits far outweigh the risks, as vaccines dramatically reduce the risk of hospitalization or death from covid-19.
Ladapo has a history of vaccine skepticism and, since becoming Florida’s Surgeon General, has supported Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to investigate “wrongdoing in Florida with regard to COVID-19 vaccines” by vaccine manufacturers and their supporters.
At the beginning of the pandemic, DeSantis had defended the need for vaccines, but his message changed from mid-2021, coinciding with skepticism from conservatives who have sometimes booed President Donald Trump for promoting covid-19 vaccines.
