The Florida State Surgeon General now recommends against the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine for males aged 18-39 years old.
On Friday, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo announced new guidance regarding the vaccines following an analysis conducted by the Florida Department of Health.
The analysis was conducted through a self-controlled case series — a method originally developed to evaluate vaccine safety in which individuals act as their own control group and “only individuals who have experienced an event are included.”
The analysis found an 84% increase in the relative incidents of cardiac-related death among males 18-39 years old within 28 days of receiving the mRNA vaccination.
It also found that males over the age of 60 had a 10% increased risk of cardiac-related death within 28 days of mRNA vaccination.
“With a high level of global immunity to COVID-19, the benefit of vaccination is likely outweighed by this abnormally high risk of cardiac-related death among men in this age group,” stated a press release issued by the Florida Department of Health.
The department also advised that people with pre-existing cardiac conditions such as myocarditis and pericarditis be particularly cautious when deciding whether to receive an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
“Studying the safety and efficacy of any medications, including vaccines, is an important component of public health,” stated Ladapo. “Far less attention has been paid to safety and the concerns of many individuals have been dismissed — these are important findings that should be communicated to Floridians.”
On Friday, Ladapo shared the department’s new guidance on Twitter, tweeting, “[Florida] will not be silent on the truth.”
Twitter subsequently blocked the Florida Surgeon General’s tweet on grounds of “misinformation.”
“Our current misleading information policies cover: synthetic and manipulated media, COVID-19, and civic integrity,” Twitter said in a notice, adding, “If we determine a Tweet contains misleading or disputed information per our policies that could lead to harm, we may add a label to the content to provide context and additional information.”
This notice is placed on any tweet that Twitter labels “misinformation.”
Twitter reversed course and restored Ladapo’s tweet on Sunday morning.
The health department also said it continues to stand by its Guidance for Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccines, which recommends against giving the vaccine to children and adolescents 5-17 years old and now includes recommendations against vaccination among children younger than 5 years old.
Speaking in support of Ladapo’s move, Jackie Schlegel, executive director of Texans for Medical Freedom, claimed, “Mistakes have been made and corners have been cut in a rush to get vaccines on the market. Young men are losing their lives because of these mistakes. Freedom has a cost and giving up a life with vaccines that were rushed to market is not a price worth paying.”
Schlegel further claimed in a video shared by her organization, “This is that vaccine that is supposed to help save lives, and is now showing to be a direct cause of death in the 18-39-year-old male population.”
“It is time that every state carefully reviews their vaccine safety data, as taking a drug that leads to death is not the solution,” she concluded.
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are both mRNA vaccines and have been approved by both the FDA and the CDC, and the CDC still recommends COVID-19 vaccinations for everyone 6 months and older, along with boosters for everyone 5 years and older, if eligible.
The CDC still maintains that COVID-19 vaccines are “safe and effective.”
Terri Burke, executive director of the Houston-based Immunization Partnership, shared her response to Ladapo’s announcement with The Dallas Express.
“It is disastrous that someone charged with safeguarding the public health of citizens has a track record of this kind of lapse in judgment,” she said, referring to Ladapo. “To promote a study that is not peer-reviewed, fails to identify authors, and fails to include anyone who has COVID-19 is inexcusable.”
“And this is after he touted hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin as acceptable options to protect against the disease,” she told The Dallas Express. “He appears to have been someone looking for a medical study to fit his political views.”