Opinion | Florida’s surgeon general played loose with facts about vaccine risk

His advice went against the guidance provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s analysis was criticized at the time by experts who said the research was shoddy and the sample too small. Now, thanks to a public records request by the Tampa Bay Times, we discover that the analysis was altered by Dr. Ladapo to emphasize the risks. Five previous drafts of the analysis — before he edited it — did not reach such a conclusion.

Dr. Ladapo, appointed in 2021 by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, is a well-known vaccine skeptic and critic of the pharmaceutical industry who has also questioned pandemic lockdowns and face masks, and was an advocate for the use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to fight covid-19 — a drug that studies showed to be useless against the coronavirus.

The first draft of the Florida analysis concluded there was “no increase” in the risk of cardiac-related deaths from the mRNA vaccine, and by the fifth draft, it still said there was “no increased risk for cardiac mortality following mRNA vaccinations.” But version six, the one edited by Dr. Ladapo and released to the public, warned “covid-19 vaccination was associated with a modestly increased risk for cardiac-related mortality 28 days following vaccination.” The sixth version had a notation that it contained “Dr. L’s edits,” according to Politico.

Moreover, in the second draft of the analysis, the authors attempted to balance the risk of cardiac-related death against the risk of death from coronavirus infection. They found the risk of death was higher from infection than from vaccination for all age groups, including young men. But this text and analysis disappeared from the report in subsequent drafts. The final report also made no mention of a sensitivity analysis performed by the authors which called into question the reliability of the results.

“This is not how science or evidence-based policy is done,” say epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina and physician Kristen Panthagani, who dissected the changes.

By playing loose with the facts, Dr. Ladapo cast doubt on the safety of the coronavirus vaccines. His misdirection contributed to vaccine hesitancy, and that, in turn, led to a higher pandemic death toll. His actions also underscore how anti-vaccine activists create fear and suspicion. Rather than rely upon scientifically sound research, they traffic in half-truths and unsubstantiated declarations. In so doing, Dr. Ladapo betrayed the trust of the people of Florida and the nation.