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Tag: Joseph Ladapo

  • Florida bill takes aim at anti-vax discrimination, ivermectin access

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    A House Republican is charging back into a continuing fight over vaccines and doctors that created a huge rift during last year’s legislative session.

    Rep. Jeff Holcomb late last month filed HB 917, a proposal that takes aim at doctors who refuse to treat patients based on their vaccination schedule while also delving into other contentious health care treatment disputes.

    The administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis backed a similar bill last year championed by Department of Health Secretary and State Health Officer Dr. Joseph Ladapo, but the vaccine provision was stripped from the bill.

    In an email to the Florida Phoenix, Holcomb said he “feels strongly” the bill will pass this year.

    “We saw during the Covid pandemic that medical decisions were made without proper safety measures. We have a similar situation with the childhood vaccine schedule. The vaccines our children are mandated to have do not have sufficient safety studies. This was confirmed yesterday with CDC shrinking the recommended childhood vaccine schedule,” he said, referencing the decision Monday to shrink the recommended number of childhood vaccines from 17 to 11.

    Holcomb’s bill doesn’t eliminate any vaccine mandate now in Florida statute or rule. 

    The bill does amend Florida’s Patient’s Bill of Rights and Responsibilities to make clear that a health care provider or facility cannot discriminate against a patient based upon the patient’s vaccination status. 

    Additionally, Holcomb’s bill would add “vaccine status” to the list of reasons protected in law why patients cannot be discriminated against. That list now includes race, national origin, handicap, and source of payment.

    The bill would allow the DOH or the appropriate licensing board to discipline providers who discriminate against patients based on vaccine status. The penalties in law vary from restricting, suspending, or revoking a license to imposing administrative fines or both.

    Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics President Rana Alissa, a Jacksonville physician, said the association does not support HB 917.

    “When you have somebody that is unvaccinated and coming with fever, what if that patient has measles? If they are going to come and be in the waiting room with people who have leukemia, or for any reason they do have a lower immune system, they are going to expose them to measles,” Alissa said.

    Physician’s offices aren’t designed to safely accommodate unvaccinated patients, she said.

    “You have to change the way clinics are built. You have to have a different waiting room, you have to have a different stairs, you have to have a different elevator. You have to have negative-pressure rooms to accommodate these unvaccinated kids when they have signs and symptoms of the illness,” she said.

    “You want to force them to take unvaccinated kids? Then you have to help them reconstruct their clinics and you have to basically accommodate them accordingly.”

    The language is identical to what the DeSantis administration pushed for last year in a far-reaching bill that addressed an array of Department of Health-related issues, from background screening requirements for staff at medical marijuana treatment centers to physician licensure requirements.

    While HB 1299 ultimately passed and was signed into law by the governor, it didn’t contain the anti-discrimination language the DeSantis administration wanted.

    Another vaccine-related provision in HB 917 left over from the 2025 session addresses messenger ribonucelic acid (mRNA) vaccines.

    The Legislature in 2023 passed a law that banned governmental entities, business establishments, and educational institutions from discriminating against someone based on mRNA vaccination status. Essentially, the law banned the use of vaccine passports in Florida. But it was valid only through June 2025.

     The DeSantis administration tried unsuccessfully last year to make the ban permanent in HB 1299, but the Legislature refused to go along. Lawmakers did agree, however, to extend the ban through June 2027. HB 917 would make the ban permanent.

    DeSantis in September criticized the Legislature for refusing to go along with his health-care proposals. Specifically regarding the mRNA provisions, DeSantis said: “That’s got to be made permanent. I mean, everyone is glad that we did that. Even the far left, I don’t hear them, at least publicly they won’t admit they’re for vaccine passports. It doesn’t make sense. So, they need to do that.”

    The governor and Ladapo said over the summer that they want to eliminate all vaccine mandates from Florida statutes. That would require legislative buy-in that isn’t clear the governor and Ladapo, his state health czar, can expect.

    In the meantime, the DOH has proposed changing its rules regarding vaccine requirement for school and day care, specifically removing requirements for children to receive the hepatitis B, varicella (chicken pox), and haemophilus influenza B or Hib vaccine. The DOH is proposing to also eliminate those vaccines, along with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for admission to a licensed day care facility.

    It held a lengthy public meeting on the proposed rule changes in December.

    Vaccines maintained, disclosure added

    HB 917 wouldn’t eliminate any vaccine mandate from statute. But the legislation would require every licensed health care provider authorized to vaccinate children to advise parents and legal guardians of the “unique risks, benefits, safety, and efficacy of each vaccine included on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule.”

    Holcomb’s bill would require health care providers to give parents and legal guardians the option of following “alternative vaccination schedules that may consist of not more than one injection or oral administration at each encounter.”

    Parent and legal guardians would be required to sign a document attesting they have been provided the requisite immunization information.

    Behind-the-counter ivermectin

    HB 917 would authorize pharmacists to sell ivermectin “behind the counter,” which means pharmacy assistance wouldn’t needed to obtain the product.

    Ivermectin is an effective treatment for parasites in animals and for use by humans to treat parasites such as head lice and scabies, according to the National Institutes of Health. The FDA has not approved  Ivermectin for treatment or prevention of COVID-19, and so far recommends against taking it for COVID-19, instead suggesting people get vaccinated for protection.

    Nevertheless, there was buzz during the pandemic about using it for treatment for COVID-19.

    HB 917 provides pharmacists who sell ivermectin from behind the counter with immunity from civil and criminal liability as well as disciplinary protections.

    Specifically, HB 917 would authorize pharmacists to provide ivermectin to patients and customers as long as the pharmacist provides written information about the indications and contraindications of the use of ivermectin and the appropriate dosage for using ivermectin. The information must advise the person to seek follow up care from a primary care physician.

    There is no age restriction in HB 917 for the purchase of ivermectin. Holcomb has also filed HB 29, to legalize over-the-counter sale of ivermectin. That means it wouldn’t be limited but freely accessible.

    HB 29 has been referred to three House committees. There is no Senate companion.

    The announcement comes as Republicans seek to maintain control of the U.S. House in this year’s elections

    Holcomb’s bill would add “vaccine status” to the list of reasons protected in law why patients cannot be discriminated against

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  • Hearings to repeal Florida’s school vaccine mandates begin

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     Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo in Destin on May 11, 2023.

    The push by Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo to repeal some of the state’s vaccine requirements for public schools and day care kicked off Friday with a lengthy and contentious hearing held in a hotel in Florida’s Panhandle.

    Ladapo made the call to get rid of all vaccine mandates contained in both state rule and state law even though many of those mandates have been considered a public health success.

    About 90 people attended the Department of Health three-hour public meeting on the proposed changes to Rule 64D-3.046, specifically removing the requirements for children to receive the hepatitis B, varicella (chicken pox), and haemophilus influenza B or Hib vaccine. The proposal would remove those vaccines, along with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, for admission to a licensed day care facility.

    Emma Spencer, DOH division director for public health statistics and performance management, and facilitator of the meeting, described the workshop as an opportunity for “public input” as “part of an ongoing efforts to ensure the health and safety of Florida students and communities.”

    And there was lots of input, ranging from medical professionals to parental rights advocates to those who questioned whether a measles outbreak is underway in South Carolina. More than 280 people are in quarantine there for measles after a significant influx in cases following the Thanksgiving holiday, Phoenix affiliate South Carolina Daily Gazette reports.

    Susan Sweeten, chief marketing officer for the National Vaccine Information Center and a Florida resident, was first to testify. The center’s website says the group is “dedicated to preventing vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and advocating for informed consent protections in medical policies and public health laws.“

    Sweeten said her son, just five hours old, was injured when he was given a hepatitis B vaccine in the hospital. 

    “When I questioned it, she said, ‘If you don’t give your baby the vaccine, your pediatrician won’t see him, and you won’t know if he’s deaf, dumb, or blind,’” Sweeten told the DOH panel. “This is not informed consent. That is coercion. Vaccines should never be tied to a child’s education. Nothing that pierces the skin should ever be used as leverage over a child’s opportunity to education and to learn,” she said.

    Doctors who showed up insisted vaccines work and that elimination of the mandates would lead to a resurgence of controllable childhood diseases.

    “As a pediatric infectious disease physician, I cared for children before the varicella vaccine and saw ‘simple chickenpox’ turn into pneumonia, encephalitis, and needless hospitalizations — outcomes we can now prevent because of vaccines,” said Dr. Nectar Aintablian, a pediatric infectious disease specialist in Tallahassee. “Vaccines are victims of their own success; because they work, we forget the suffering they avert.”

    Rick Frye, another Florida resident, said he’s been beseeching people not to vaccinate their children for about the past 20 years.

    “Now, any pediatrician in this room who tells you that a kid needs 80 shots shouldn’t be trusted to put a band aid on a kid’s knee,” he said. “It’s obviously about freedom, but it’s also about the children these pediatricians damage because they get paid to to vaccinate these kids.”

    More hearings coming

    The meeting was the first one held on the proposed changes, but likely won’t be the last given the administrative rulemaking process and the requirements for public input.

    The department did not say when the next meeting will occur, only that it would be announced in advance in the Florida Administrative Register.

    DOH staff asked that public comment on the proposed rule changes be sent to the DOH at vaccinerule@flhealth.gov by Dec. 22, although Spencer acknowledged comments would remain open as the state works on the proposed changes.

    The League of Women Voters of Florida didn’t focus on the science behind the vaccines, adverse reactions to vaccines, or parental rights. LWV representative Mary Winn focused her testimony instead on how the proposed changes conflict with the DOH’s statutory mission.

    “This rule could probably be updated to reflect current practice and the responsibilities of the state, the Department of Health, private-practicing medical professionals, parents, and the public at large. But any changes must be consistent with the public health mission of the Department of Health as stated in Florida law,” she said. 

    Winn noted that statutes require the DOH to conduct a communicable disease prevention and control program, which includes school immunization programs. The agency is charged by statute to ensure that “all children in this state” are immunized against vaccine-preventable diseases, she said.

    “Eliminating the mandatory requirement will result in lower levels of immunization, which is contrary to that law stating that you are responsible for all of the children to be vaccinated in the state,” she said.

    ‘Tremendous damage’

    Dr. Frederick Southwick testified that he has been an infectious disease specialist for 45 years. Although he worked with adult populations for much of his career, Southwick recalled helping cover pediatric infectious diseases in 1983 and 1984, before introduction of the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) bacteria, which would be eliminated under the DOH proposal.

    “What did I see?” he asked. 

    Before the Hib vaccine, “I saw cases of orbital cellulitis, infections that went from the sinus causing bulging-eye blindness. I saw severe cases of pneumonia. I saw severe cases of otitis media. I saw bone infections, osteomyelitis that damaged the growth plate of the children so their bones could no longer grow. I saw sepsis, where patients got hypotension and died,” Southwick said.

    “And the most feared was bacterial meningitis, and that had carried a 20% mortality. And this was the leading cause of deafness before the HiB vaccine. In 1985, the Hib vaccine came in, we went from 20,000 hospitalizations to 30, and today we don’t see any of those diseases. You are ending that vaccine. It’s going to cause tremendous damage.”

    The proposed rule would change the existing religious exemption people can claim to refuse vaccines, removing language prohibiting exemptions based on personal or philosophical reasons.

    Additionally, the proposed rule would allow parents, guardians, and college and university applicants aged 18-23 to decline to participate in documenting their vaccination status in the Florida SHOTS program, which is how the state collects vaccination data.

    DeSantis and Ladapo made national headlines in September when they announced they’d like to eliminate all vaccine mandates from Florida statutes and rules, a move that could affect schoolchildren but also college students and even nursing home residents.

    Ladapo said at the time that mandates drip “with disdain and slavery.” 

    The proposed rule only removes the vaccines the DOH has authorized through its rules. The proposal cannot eliminate the school vaccines mandated by statute. 

    The Legisalture’s reaction

    To date there’s been no legislation filed on behalf of the DeSantis administration to eliminate vaccine mandates from Florida statutes. Even Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott distanced himself from the idea. 

    Meanwhile, Senate President Ben Albritton told reporters this week that he’s a believer in what he called “the vaccines of old,” but that he has never gotten an mRNA vaccine — used during the COVID-19 epidemic — because “he doesn’t trust the technology.”

    He said he and his wife support parental rights.

    “Missy and I believe we’re going to separate the mRNA stuff from the traditional stuff. And let’s be thoughtful about what works and what we know.”

    Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democrat from Orlando, is pushing a proposal (SB 626) to amend statutes to require the vaccines (hepatitis B, chickenpox, haemophilus influenzae type b, and pneumococcal disease) Ladapo is trying to eliminate via rule.

    SB 626 has been referred to the Senate Health Policy, Education Pre-K – 12, and Rules committees.

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    All the spots with Santa meet-and-greets, Christmas trees, ice skating, holiday parades and even some (Florida-fied) snow. 

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  • Doctors plead with Florida lawmakers to resist ban on vaccine mandates

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    A bipartisan group of state lawmakers heard from nearly a dozen doctors on Tuesday who called on them to reject any proposed legislation that would remove vaccine mandates from Florida schools.

    Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo and Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last month in Hillsborough County that they intend to drop all required vaccine mandates for children, including those required for school attendance such as polio, diphtheria, measles, mumps, and chickenpox.

    Ladapo already holds authority to remove some vaccine requirements by simple rule changes. That means that starting in early December (taking effect 90 days after the Sept. 3 announcement), school vaccinations will no longer be required for hepatitis B, chickenpox, haemophilus type b (Hib), and pneumococcal conjugate virus. That’s according to a statement sent by the Florida Department of Health that was reported by ABC News.

    Others, however, including poliomyelitis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, and rubella are still in place and won’t be removed unless the Legislature opts to do so when it convenes for its 2026 session in January.

    But a group of doctors – many of them pediatricians from the Tampa Bay area – urged members of the Hillsborough County legislative delegation on Tuesday to oppose any such proposals if they come before them early next year.

    “We as physicians took an oath to do no harm, and I do think that silence in the face of preventable harm is, in and of itself, a kind of harm,” said Brandon urologist Dr. Neil Manimala, who is also a Democratic candidate for county commission in 2026. “We are here because we do not want to be silent when politics is injected into our children’s healthcare.”

    “Vaccine requirements are not about government overreach, they are about public responsibility,” said Dr. Lisa M. Rush, a pediatrician with Health Care Alliance.

    “They’re protecting the vulnerable and ensuring that our schools, businesses, and healthcare systems remain strong and resilient in the face of infectious disease. The question before us is not whether we support vaccines. That debate is, frankly, settled science. The question is, do we have the courage to uphold policies that have kept our state safe even when it’s politically inconvenient? True freedom isn’t the absence of regulation. It’s the presence of safety, opportunity, and the ability to live without fear of preventable illness.”

    Dr. Ed Homan served as a member of the Florida House as a Republican representing parts of Hillsborough and Pasco counties from 2002 to 2010. He noted how highly contagious a disease like measles is and feared what could happen if an unvaccinated child spent time at Disney World or Universal Florida.

    “It wouldn’t be long before this measles outbreak starts popping up all over the country, and then it wouldn’t be long after that before we figured out where is the source of this epidemic [is] in Central Florida. So think about the economic impact of our tourism industry,” he said.

    Dr. Marcy Solomon Baker, director of pediatrics at BayCare Medical Group, said that after practicing for 25 years she knows that vaccines are what’s best for children and for “our vulnerable children.”

    “Children that are too young to be vaccinated; children who have cancer; children who have immune problems. They depend on herd immunity. So, if other people don’t vaccinate, it puts them at risk,” she said.

    Both Ladapo and DeSantis acknowledged during their Sept. 3 press conference that they had yet to speak to any lawmaker before they went public. And although legislators are filing bills daily in advance of the regular legislative start date of Jan. 13, none has filed a bill to remove vaccine mandates.

    A James Madison Institute survey released in late September of 1,200 registered Florida voters found 62% against elimination of all vaccine requirements, with just 29% in support. And a survey of 631 registered Florida voters conducted by Bendixen & Amandi International taken Sept. 7-9 found 60% opposed ending vaccine mandates and just 37% supporting it.

    Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.

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  • Vaccines and guns: DeSantis talks 2026 legislative agenda

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    Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday offered a sneak peek at two priorities for the 2026 legislative session — both of which revamp proposals he unsuccessfully pushed this year: eliminating vaccine mandates and allowing open-carry of firearms.

    During a press conference in Plant City, DeSantis defended his administration’s proposal last week to eliminate from rule and statute all vaccine mandates. State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo made the announcement, arguing mandates drip “with disdain and slavery.”  

    Ladapo acknowledged to CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” over the weekend that the state had conducted no studies before deciding to eliminate vaccine mandates.

    DeSantis on Monday came out strong in defense of Ladapo.

    “He never said he’d take away availability [of vaccines]. Obviously that’s not his position. But I think his position is if you provide information and persuasion, that’s better than coercion.”

    DeSantis, who initially embraced the COVID-19 vaccine and deviated from the federal distribution plan to make sure they were given in Florida first to seniors, fell back on familiar rhetoric about the federal government’s handling of vaccine and mask mandates and government shutdowns, and instead touted Florida’s approach to the pandemic.

    DeSantis alleged that people have grown skeptical of government direction following the pandemic. 

    “When they’re telling you, even if they’re right, I think some people are pushing back against it. It’s going to take time to rebuild trust there. And I think what the surgeon general’s position is, the way you build trust is to provide information and use persuasion rather than try to ostracize people from society if they make a different choice.”

    The DeSantis administration last year proposed legislation (HB 1299) that would have required health care facilities and providers to treat patients regardless of whether they were vaccinated. 

    Although the House agreed to the language, passing HB 1299 by a near-unanimous vote, state Sen. Gayle Harrell, a Republican from Stuart whose late husband had been a physician, warned that the requirement would open doctors to increased liability. Jason Pizzo, a no-party affiliation senator from Hollywood, said requiring a physician to treat unvaccinated patients would run afoul of a 2023 law that allows physicians to withhold care based on conscience.

    The provision was one of two related to vaccines included in the Department of Health (DOH) bill. The initial language would have indefinitely saved from repeal the statutory definition of  “messenger ribonucleic acid vaccine” (mRNA) and along with it a ban on businesses, government entities, and educational institutions from discriminating against people who refuse mRNA vaccines. 

    The Legislature had agreed in 2021 to put the mRNA definition in statute along with the protections for people who wouldn’t take mRNA vaccines, essentially blocking any move in the state from requiring vaccine passports. But the 2021 law expired in four years, or June 2025. The DeSantis administration wanted to extend the mRNA definition and protections indefinitely.

    But the Legislature refused to go along and agreed to keep the definition and subsequent ban in statutes only until June 2027.

    DeSantis criticized the Legislature for not signing off on those provisions in HB 1299.

    Regarding the mNRA definition, DeSantis said: “That’s got to be made permanent. I mean everyone is glad that we did that. Even the far left, I don’t hear them, at least publicly they won’t admit they’re for vaccine passports. It doesn’t make sense. So they need to do that.”

    Regarding requiring physicians and facilities to treat unvaccinated patients the governor said:

    “I get on some levels if someone comes for medical care and  you’re just in private practice. I don’t know if you’re under any obligation to necessarily see everybody — I mean, you’d have to talk to doctors about that. I get there’s a business component to this.

    “But to say that a mom can’t get her daughter in to see a pediatrician because, while they did MMR (measles mumps and rubella) and all the standard vaccines, they didn’t do maybe Hep B or COVID or some of those. To me, that’s discrimination. I mean, that is limiting people’s freedom to do what they think is right for their kids by having these restrictions.”

    Former state senator-turned Lt. Gov. Jay Collins sponsored the companion to HB 1299 in the Senate, SB 1270.

    Gun pitch

    DeSantis on Monday also made a pitch for open carry.

    Florida is one of just a handful of states (and the only red state) that prohibits people from openly carrying firearms in public. 

    DeSantis said that, with Republicans in supermajority control of both chambers of the Florida Legislature, it shouldn’t be a problem getting the bill passed.

    “It’s not something that’s controversial,” he said. “The sky hasn’t fallen in any of those [states which have legalized open carry]. 

    Although the governor called out the House for failing to pass such legislation, in fact it’s been Senate leaders who in recent years have said that they don’t support open carry.

    Senate President Ben Albritton said last year that he’s supported law enforcement his entire life, and stood with them in opposing open carry. He cited opposition from the Florida Sheriffs Association

    However Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey told Luis Valdes, Florida state director of Gun Owners of America, in January that he believes the majority of Florida sheriffs now do support legalizing open carry in Florida.

    Collins also made the case for open carry during Monday’s press conference.

    “We should be an open-carry state,” he said. “I think that we’re on record many times saying that. Hopefully, this is the year. We will continue to fight for those freedoms and those rights, each and every day until we get them all back.”

    Collins never introduced legislation supporting open carry during his three terms as a state senator representing Hillsborough County. 

    Second Amendment advocates have heard DeSantis make similar pleas for the Legislature on open carry in previous years to no success. One such group has called for a special legislative session to get lawmakers on the record about where they stand on this issue.

    “Gun Owners of America is thankful for Gov. DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins supporting open carry,” Valdes said.

    “But we feel that the rubber needs to meet the road, and that a special session needs to be called specifically for open carry and gun rights as a whole, so the Republican supermajority can lay bare where they truly stand on gun rights. If they vote down a special session, then gun owners going into 2026 know which lawmakers actually support and defend the Second Amendment.”

    DeSantis again criticized a Florida law passed in 2018 that bans individuals under the age of 21 from purchasing a long gun. The Florida House has passed a measure repealing that law over the past three legislative sessions, but the Senate has never followed suit. 

    DeSantis and Collins spoke at a sporting goods store in Plant City, where they kicked off the press conference by announcing what they are calling a “ Second Amendment tax free holiday” that takes place until the end of the year.

    That means that all purchases of firearms, ammunition, firearm accessories, crossbows, and accessories for bows and crossbows in Florida are tax free up until December 31. Camping and fishing supply purchases are also tax-free until the remainder of the year.

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    A city spokesperson declined to confirm whether Orlando would reconsider at this time, citing a pending legal case.

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  • Florida will move to end all childhood vaccine mandates in the state, Gov. DeSantis says

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    Governor Ron DeSantis and state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo have announced that Florida will work to phase out all childhood vaccine mandates in the state.

    DeSantis also announced on Wednesday the creation of a state-level “Make America Healthy Again” commission modeled after similar initiatives pushed at the federal level by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    Ladapo likened vaccine mandates to “slavery”  

    On the vaccines, Ladapo cast current requirements in schools and elsewhere as an “immoral” intrusion on people’s rights bordering on “slavery,” and hampers parents’ ability to make health decisions for their children.

    “People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions,” said Ladapo, who has frequently clashed with the medical establishment, at a news conference in Valrico, Florida, in the Tampa area. “They don’t have the right to tell you what to put in your body. Take it away from them.”

    The state Health Department, Ladapo said, can scrap its own rules for some vaccine mandates, but others would require action by the Florida Legislature. He did not specify any particular vaccines but repeated several times the effort would end “all of them. Every last one of them.”

    Ladapo said his department will lawmakers to make it happen.

    “I love our lawmakers. They’re going to have to make decisions, people are going to have to make a decision,” he said. “People are going to have to choose a side. And I am telling you right now that the moral side is so simple.”

    Florida would be the first state to eliminate so many vaccine mandates, Ladapo added.

    Florida has required vaccines for kids attending school for decades

    In Florida, vaccine mandates for child day care facilities and public schools include shots for measles, chickenpox, hepatitis B, Diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP), polio and other diseases, according to the state Health Department’s website.

    Under DeSantis, Florida resisted imposing COVID vaccines on schoolchildren, requiring “passports” for places that draw crowds, school closures and mandates that workers get the shots to keep their jobs.

    “I don’t think there’s another state that’s done as much as Florida. We want to stay ahead of the curve,” the governor said.

    The state “MAHA” commission would look into such things as allowing informed consent in medical matters, promoting safe and nutritious food, boosting parental rights regarding medical decisions about their children, and eliminating “medical orthodoxy that is not supported by the data,” DeSantis said. The commission will be chaired by Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and Florida first lady Casey DeSantis.

    “We’re getting government out of the way, getting government out of your lives,” Collins said.

    The commission’s work will help inform a large “medical freedom package” to be introduced in the Legislature next session, which would address the vaccine mandates required by state law and make permanent the recent state COVID decisions relaxing restrictions, DeSantis said.

    “There will be a broad package,” the governor said.

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  • The Inflated Risk of Vaccine-Induced Cardiac Arrest

    The Inflated Risk of Vaccine-Induced Cardiac Arrest

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    During this week’s Monday Night Football game, the 24-year-old Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed moments after making a routine defensive play. Hamlin seemed to have suffered a blow to his chest shortly before losing consciousness from cardiac arrest, and his condition is grave. The source of his illness remains unclear. A study of sudden cardiac events in U.S. athletes from 2014 to 2016 found that structural abnormalities of the heart muscle or arteries and faulty electric rhythms were the most common causes; traumatic chest injuries have also been linked to such incidents, in a rare condition called commotio cordis. Still, the availability of these hypotheses did not stop online activists from blaming Hamlin’s health crisis on vaccines.

    Anti-vaccine influencers have been fomenting fear about a supposed rise in COVID-shot-induced athletic deaths for a while. Fact-checkers have repeatedly assessed these claims and found them to be without merit. Jonathan Drezner, a sports-medicine physician who studies sudden deaths in athletes, told media outlets last year that he was “not aware of any COVID-19 vaccine-related athletic death.” The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, which systematically tracks sports-related fatalities, identified 13 medical deaths during football-related activities in 2021 among players participating at all levels of competition, eight of which were caused by cardiac arrest. The same researchers had found 14 medical deaths two years earlier, 10 of which were heart-related. These incidents remain tragic and scarce.

    The mRNA shots by Pfizer and Moderna are associated with a very small risk of heart inflammation, called myocarditis, which can lead to cardiac arrest. This risk is most pronounced in teenage boys receiving a second dose of the vaccine, but even in that scenario only about one in 10,000 recipients is affected. (Most professional athletes are in their 20s, not teens, so the risk to them is lower.) Myocarditis is a potentially fatal condition, but the version that occurs after vaccination is much less deadly than the heart inflammation induced by many viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. A recent analysis identified only a single death in 104 cases of vaccine-induced myocarditis. In comparison, for every 100 people who get myocarditis from a virus, about 11 will die.

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    The mere fact that mRNA shots can lead to heart problems has been exploited by conservative commentators and politicians to exaggerate the risks to young people. Last month, per a news release, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis promised to look into “sudden deaths of individuals that received the COVID-19 vaccine,” and called for a grand jury to investigate alleged wrongdoing by the vaccine manufacturers. His petition to the Florida Supreme Court justified the investigation by pointing out that “excess mortality from heart attacks rose significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among individuals ages 25 to 44.” Yet the rise in youth heart attacks actually began in 2020, before vaccines were available. That’s because increased cardiac fatalities during the pandemic have mostly been due to the coronavirus itself. Heart-disease deaths in the United States have been observed to rise and fall in near lockstep with waves of COVID deaths, suggesting that most of these cases—97 percent, according to one estimate—are the result of undocumented SARS-CoV-2 infection.

    DeSantis’s crusade against vaccines is backed by his surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, who is a staunch opponent of inoculating young people against COVID. (He has encouraged the use of ineffective therapies such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, though.) In October, Ladapo’s department produced an anonymous, non-peer-reviewed analysis suggesting that COVID shots were causing an increase in cardiac fatalities in young men. This report was modeled on a study by the U.K. government, which came to the opposite conclusion about vaccines but did find that COVID infection was associated with a sixfold increase in youth cardiac death. Given the lack of detail provided in the Florida study, it’s hard to know how to reconcile its contradictory result. This week, a group of University of Florida physicians and scientists released a report that strongly criticized the work’s methodology.

    The COVID vaccines are among the most widely used medical interventions. More than 13 billion doses have been administered, at least 1 billion of which relied on mRNA technology. In analyzing this trove of real-world data, researchers have occasionally identified potential safety issues. A lack of perfect consistency across their studies is expected, and only confirms that the scientific dialogue about this new technology has been transparent. Scientists know that findings made outside a clinical trial are prone to spurious associations, so they examine how well each analysis has been performed and interpret it in the context of prior research.

    Read: The core lesson of the COVID-19 heart debate

    Vaccine skeptics prefer to cherry-pick supportive studies while ignoring others that contradict them. Ladapo, for example, has cited a Scandinavian report showing a potential increase in post-vaccine blood clots and heart attacks. Yet the study authors themselves cautioned readers against relying too heavily on their results, because the finding was observed in only some age groups and time periods but not others. Ladapo also failed to mention that similar studies out of the U.K., France, Scotland, and elsewhere had not found a meaningful increase in blood clots or heart attacks with mRNA shots.

    A careful recitation of facts can take one only so far in combatting anti-vaccine claims. Activists use ambiguous anecdotes such as Hamlin’s cardiac arrest and the sudden death of the soccer journalist Grant Wahl during last month’s World Cup to make the alleged risks of the shots more visceral. Sports are much less dangerous than SARS-CoV-2, but when unexpected tragedies do occur, they lead to an outpouring of mourning and reflection. Collective trauma can easily give way to collective speculation, and partisans on all sides will be happy to tell us what really happened. Yet convenient scapegoats will not be enough to mend our grief.

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    Benjamin Mazer

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