In what has become a pattern of misinformation spreading about the vaccine, the Florida Department of Health is urging seniors and other residents most at risk of COVID-19 infection to avoid most booster shots, saying they are potentially dangerous.
Clinicians and scientists have decried the messaging as politically fuelled fear-mongering that will undermine prevention efforts against diseases such as measles and whooping cough.
A prominent Florida doctor expressed dismay that the state’s medical leaders, fearful of angering Gov. Ron DeSantis, have been slow to move to counter the anti-vaccine messaging of Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, including in his latest COVID-19 bulletin. Ladapo is the state’s top health official appointed by DeSantis.
The bulletin makes numerous false or unproven claims about the effectiveness and safety of Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, including that the vaccines could threaten “the integrity of the human genome.” Florida’s guidelines simply echo ideas from anti-vaccination websites, said John Moore, a professor of microbiology at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Ladapo did not respond to a request for comment. DeSantis referred questions to the Department of Health, which said the Surgeon General’s guidance and quotes “speak for themselves” and pointed to a post by Ladapo on social media platform “X” in which he accused the Centers for Disease Control and the FDA of “gaslighting the American people.”
DeSantis has positioned himself and his administration as a bulwark against vaccination mandates, lockdowns and other restrictive public health protections put in place during the pandemic to curb infections and save lives. COVID-19 vaccinations have become a partisan issue, with polls from health information nonprofit KFF, which includes KFF Health News, finding that Republicans have much less confidence in the safety and effectiveness of vaccines than Democrats.
But vaccine historians consulted for this article could not recall a previous instance in which state health leaders had urged residents to avoid getting an FDA-approved and CDC-recommended vaccine. “It’s unprecedented,” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Florida’s health care leaders should speak out more strongly against Ladapo’s attacks on public health, said Jeffrey Goldhagen, a pediatrician and professor at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville. Last year, Ladapo urged people under 65 to avoid COVID-19 vaccinations and rejected public health protocols to combat a measles outbreak.
“There’s a pattern of fear and dereliction of duty across our state, driven in part by fear and vindictiveness towards this governor,” said Goldhagen, a former health commissioner for the city of Jacksonville.
He specifically criticized the Florida Medical Association, a trade group for doctors, noting that Ladapo is a non-voting member of its board of directors. The association did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The Florida Healthcare Association, whose members represent more than 600 long-term care facilities, declined to comment on Ladapo’s release. Leading Age Southeast, a nursing home chain, said it was aware of federal and state recommendations about booster COVID-19 vaccinations and encouraged facilities to “work with residents, families and medical professionals to make informed decisions.”
Shelley Duvall-Jones, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said the agency “strongly disagrees with the Florida Surgeon General’s position on the safety and effectiveness of the modified mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.” She said the vaccine meets the FDA’s “rigorous scientific standards” and urged people to get booster shots because people’s immunity to the coronavirus is waning.
In its false claims, the Florida Bulletin alleges that the new mRNA booster mistakenly targets Omicron, a variant of the virus that is no longer widely circulating. This is false, because all of the major variants of COVID-19 over the past two years evolved from Omicron and its subsequent mutations.
“It starts off with that, then it goes into head-exploding emoji territory,” Moore said. “It’s a whole string of lies that are part of the anti-vaxxer playbook.”
Other allegations in Ladapo’s bulletin include:
COVID-19 booster hasn’t undergone clinical trials It’s true that the COVID-19 booster shot, which has a slightly altered mRNA sequence from the previous vaccine, hasn’t undergone large-scale clinical trials. Neither has the annual flu vaccine. By the time such trials are completed, flu season will likely be over. But the original mRNA shot has undergone clinical trials, and like the flu shot, “there’s a lot of evidence being collected that supports the continued use of the vaccine,” said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.
Vaccination carries the risk of causing infections, autoimmune diseases, and other conditions. “I don’t know where these claims come from, but they’re not accepted by the general medical community,” said William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. As with any drug, serious side effects occur rarely. U.S. authorities first found rare cases of myocarditis (inflammation of heart tissue) in young adults who received the COVID-19 vaccine. Most patients recovered quickly. Myocarditis is often caused by the COVID-19 infection itself.
Vaccination may increase the concentration of spike proteins and foreign genetic material in the blood. Such concerns, circulating on social media, have either been disproven or have not come to fruition. For example, Offit said that the billionth of a gram of bacterial DNA that allegedly contaminates COVID-19 vaccines is tiny compared to other exposures. “Assuming you live on Earth and eat things made from animals and vegetables, you’re going to encounter foreign DNA all the time,” he said. “I don’t know Dr. Ladapo, but I’m sure you do.” Americans face “unknown risks” from too many booster shots. Scientists worry about the possibility of “overvaccination” every time they study a booster shot. So far, there are no safety risks from multiple doses, Schaffner said. Floridians should exercise and eat vegetables and “healthy fats.” “These are beneficial for your overall health, but none of them will prevent COVID(-19),” Schaffner said.
The notice urges all Floridians, including seniors, to avoid the mRNA vaccines and find alternatives, but doesn’t specifically mention the only non-mRNA vaccine available, made by Novavax, which Dean said makes it seem “insincere.”
Critics of Ladapo’s report said it resembled a test run for a job in the Trump administration. Ladapo’s adviser is longtime anti-vaccination activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has said he wants Trump to cooperate with vetting top health officials. Trump has said children are being over-vaccinated and suggested vaccines cause autism, which has been debunked by years of scientific research.
Ironically, the Trump administration has overseen the rapid development of a COVID-19 vaccine yet has refused to get vaccinated in public, as presidents have done during past pandemics.
Ladapo’s statements on vaccines “align with Project 2025,” Offit said, referring to a policy plan from the conservative Heritage Foundation whose architects included officials from Trump’s first term in the administration, but Offit said it doesn’t reflect his views.
The document calls the CDC “perhaps the most incompetent and arrogant agency in the federal government.”
Organized resistance to vaccines has been around for as long as vaccination itself. Within six months of the release of mRNA vaccines in December 2020, about 70% of U.S. adults had been vaccinated. Studies have shown that people who refuse to get vaccinated are at increased risk of hospitalization and death if they contract COVID-19.
Cheryl Holder, a physician who practices in Miami, said Ladapo’s comments have led to an overall decline in interest in getting vaccinated. People who are apathetic about COVID-19 “are not going to want to get the tetanus vaccine, they’re not going to want to get the pneumococcal vaccine, they’re not going to want to get the flu vaccine,” Holder said.
“We’re in an age of disinformation,” Offit said. “It’s certainly a lucrative business — more lucrative than the information business. But what really troubles me is that someone with a sense of entitlement will stand up and say something as ridiculous as this.”
He noted that Ladapo earned his medical and doctoral degrees from Harvard University.
Arthur Allen: (email protected), Arthur AllenDaniel Chang: (email protected), Follow, Sam Whitehead: (email protected). This article is provided by Healthbeat, a nonprofit public health newsroom published by Civic News Co. and KFF Health News.
