Ladapo’s reckless fear-mongering on vaccines | Editorial

Nowhere besides Florida have we heard of any public health expert urging people not to get the COVID-19 vaccinations that have saved millions of lives.

But in Florida, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ quack surgeon general, is doing precisely that.

It’s impossible to know whether he really believes the deadly misinformation he’s dishing out or is simply saying what the governor wants. Either way, he’s a menace to the public health that he’s supposed to protect.

So, it must be said, is the governor who chose him and should have fired him long ago.

He was right, then wrong

DeSantis’ initial reactions to the pandemic were correct. He declared a state of emergency, called for masking, social distancing and — later than most governors — lockdowns. He also acted swiftly to distribute vaccines when they became available.

But he pivoted sharply on all of that and placed himself far to the right of everyone else, especially former President Donald Trump, whom he intended to oppose for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

DeSantis the candidate courted the votes of people whose idea of “freedom” is their right to risk the lives of others along with their own. DeSantis the governor prostituted the state of Florida to that strategy.

When he recruited Ladapo from California, it demonstrated the governor’s newfound opposition to vaccine and masking mandates. Ladapo’s oddball views were well known, sharply contrasting with those of Scott Rivkees, the qualified surgeon general who had been silenced by the governor’s office.

Worse, DeSantis and Ladapo turned to attacking the vaccines themselves. Co-opting even the Florida Supreme Court, DeSantis got it to create a statewide grand jury to investigate the manufacture and distribution of the life-saving formulations. That witch hunt hasn’t been heard from yet.

No jabs for children

Ladapo eventually opposed vaccines for children and urged healthy Floridians under 65 to avoid the latest ones that were targeted to the newest COVID subvariant.

He was caught distorting data to say that the shots caused an increase in heart disease in young men. The suppressed data actually showed a greater risk from not being vaccinated.

Now, he’s gone all in against the mNRA COVID-19 vaccines — the ones made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna —  because ingredients might infect recipients’ DNA. Might. There is only one other vaccine the CDC recommends.

“These vaccines are not appropriate for use in human beings,” Ladapo said.

That is conjecture, a gambit that has no place in medicine or any other science. “Might” wouldn’t cut it for a first-year medical student.

Refuted by the FDA

Ladapo did that despite having received a stern, two-page letter from the FDA refuting his concerns. The agency made the letter public.

“It is quite implausible,” wrote Peter Marks, director of the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, that any fragments of the vaccine DNA “could find their way into the nucleus through the nuclear membrane present in intact cells and then be incorporated into chromosomal DNA.”

With more than a billion mNRA vaccine doses having been administered, “no safety concerns related to residual DNA have been identified,” Marks said.

“We stand firmly behind our regulatory decision-making,” he said, noting that the vaccines “have a highly favorable safety profile and … have saved, and continue to save, many lives.

“The challenge we face,” he said, is the ongoing proliferation of misinformation and disinformation about these vaccines,” which he said contributes to the “continued death and serious toll of COVID-19.”

Marks explained in detail why Ladapo’s objections were scientifically implausible, but Ladapo countered that the FDA had not made the proper assessments.

Millions of lives saved

Recent estimates of lives saved by the vaccines in the U.S. alone range from 2.4 million to 3.2 million, compared to 1.1 million lost due to COVID-19. But vaccination rates have become disturbingly low, and some 1,200 Americans still die from COVID-19 every week. That’s as if four big jetliners crashed every seven days.

In a way, the vaccines are victims of their own success. COVID-19 no longer seems to be a menace in people’s minds other than among those unfortunate enough to get sick or die from it.

It still makes utter good sense for everyone to keep their vaccinations and boosters up to date. They can take their guidance from the overwhelming numbers of physicians and public health officials who recommend it, or they can believe an outlier like Ladapo. It bears remembering that lives hang in the balance.

The July edition of JAMA Internal Medicine cited data from Florida and Ohio that in 2021 the “excess death rate” — that is, attributable to COVID —was 43% higher among Republican voters than Democrats after the vaccines became available.

The study acknowledged that health factors other than political preferences might have contributed to the disparity and called for further research. But what they did find means that DeSantis and Ladapo should not be making things worse.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.