Vaccine experts are pushing back on an analysis published by Florida’s surgeon general that warns COVID-19 vaccines increase the risk of cardiac-related deaths in young men, calling the study poorly designed and dangerously misleading.
The warning against vaccines from Dr. Joseph Ladapo is the latest move by the state surgeon general and his boss — Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis — that casts doubt on scientific consensus as they tap into voter frustration still lingering from the pandemic.
“I love the discussion that we’ve stimulated,” tweeted Ladapo on Monday after being accused by immunologists and doctors of spreading misinformation.
“Isn’t it great when we discuss science transparently instead of trying to cancel one another?” he added.
But if Ladapo wanted to spark a scientific discussion, he would have submitted the health department’s work for peer review instead of posting it on the Florida government website, said Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.