Florida‘s top doctor has urged men aged 18 to 39 not to get a Covid vaccine, claiming the jab significantly raises their risk of dying from heart conditions.
Dr Joseph Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general, said the mRNA jabs raise the risk of a cardiac-related death by 84 per cent among young men.
The vaccine-skeptic official cited a Florida Department of Health analysis to back up his claims — but scientists say it contains major statistical flaws.
In a tweet that was censored over the weekend before being reposted, Dr Ladapo said Florida would ‘not be silent on the truth’.
He now becomes the most high-profile doctor to break ranks from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who says the Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines are safe for the vast majority of healthy children and adults.Â
But in recent months Denmark and Norway have banned Covid vaccines for non-seniors, while next month Sweden says it will stop recommending them for 12 to 17-year-olds.
Independent scientists have criticized the Florida paper cited by Dr Ladapo, describing its methodology as ‘incredibly flawed’.
One of the main problems is that it does not weed out people who tested positive for Covid — which itself can cause heart inflammation and other issues.
Several studies have indicated the virus is more likely to cause blood clots and heart problems than vaccines.
Dr Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s top doctor issued the warning over the Covid jabs this weekend. He is pictured above before signing a bill by Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis in 2021
The above is based on the Florida Department of Health’s own analysis. It shows the risk of suffering a heart attack after getting the jab by age group and gender. It was calculated by comparing the fatality rate from the heart conditions a month after getting the vaccine, to that between one and five months later
The graph shows the number of updated Pfizer and Moderna shots in vaccine clinicsÂ
Revealing the controversial analysis on Friday, Dr Ladapo said it was ‘important’ that the risks of jabs were still communicated to Floridians.
‘Studying the safety and efficacy of any medications, including vaccines, is an important component of public health,’ he said.
‘Far less attention has been paid to safety and the concerns of many individuals have been dismissed.’
The Florida Department of Health published the eight-page document on Friday that was not peer-reviewed and had no authors mentioned.
It included 3,400 fatalities in the state from specific heart conditions such as a heart attack and myocarditis over five months.
The deaths were divided by those over the month after the second Covid vaccine dose, and those from one to five months later.
The rate of deaths in the two groups were then compared to work out the elevated risk.
The Florida Department of Health said their analysis suggested an 84 per cent higher risk of death from myocarditis among men aged 18 to 39 years.
There were 20 fatalities in the first month, they said, compared to 52 over the next four months.
For comparison among women they said the risk was 59 per cent higher. This was based on 10 fatalities in the first month compared to 33 in the other.
Many scientists have been quick to blast the analysis as making ‘little to no sense’.
Dr Deepti Gurdasani, an ardent Covid vaccine supporter at Queen Mary University of London in the UK, slammed it as ‘incredibly flawed’.
‘This study tells us nothing about the risks or benefits’, she said in a Tweet.
‘Vaccines have saved millions of lives, and are continuing to. Do they have side effects? — yes, they are rare, but they do happen. It’s a benefit-risk calculation.’
The analysis has no listed authors online and has not been peer-reviewed by scientists, a benchmark for ensuring quality research.
It also used the ICD-10 codes from I30 to I52 to catch fatalities from heart attacks, myocarditis and other conditions.
Many doctors warn this is a bucket area often used for billing purposes.
There is also no evidence that the deaths recorded under this code were actually due to the mRNA Covid vaccine. They may be down to another factor like the virus itself or an underlying health condition.
The analysis also saw people who died within the first month included in the analysis from one to five months late ras though they were still alive.
Dr Lapado’s warning, however, echoes concerns that many have previously raised over the risk of heart inflammation from the jabs — particularly for young men.
Several scientific studies warn over an elevated risk of cases of the condition in the age group, although they said most recovered easily with no long term effects.
Few scientists have suggested that myocarditis – the medical name for heart inflammation – from jabs raises the risk of death among young adults.Â
Pictured above is the tweet announcing the study. It was initially blocked by Twitter on Friday, but was restored on Sunday without any warnings
There are mounting concerns that the US may soon face another Covid wave after cases began to tick up in Europe. Pictured above is the daily case count for America
Just last week a paper from healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente found up to one in 15,000 men aged 18 to 29 suffered myocarditis after a Covid booster vaccine.
For comparison, among women of the same age group the rate was one in 156,000.
Australian health chiefs warn they have about the same risk of triggering myocarditis or pericarditis as other jabs already in use.
Dr Paul Offit — one of the top vaccine advisers in the US — has also urged younger people not to get the updated inoculations.
He said: ‘We should be careful about overselling the bivalent vaccine as something better than the existing vaccine until more data are available,’ he said.
‘As the CDC launches its fall booster dose campaign, it would be wise to focus on those at risk rather than the young and healthy.’
Dr Ladapo’s tweets were initially blocked by Twitter, but on Sunday were restored without any warnings on them.
It is not the first time the top doctor has raised concerns over the Covid vaccines.
This year Florida was also the only state to refuse to preorder any Covid vaccines for children from six months old, after they were approved for jabs by the CDC.
Officials signed off on jabs for this age group in order to give parents the choice, although they warned they should not disrupt standard scheduled inoculations for other diseases including measles, mumps and rubella.Â
The CDC is currently rolling out updated bivalent booster vaccines for all over-12s that target Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5 in time for the winter wave.
Messaging is targeted mostly at older adults, although some pharmacies are also texting younger people to get their booster shot.
Some have slammed them for approving the jabs despite having little data from human trials, causing some to blast it as the ‘mouse vaccine’.
About 68 per cent of Americans have got both doses of the initial Covid vaccines, official data shows.
But around 40 per cent have got their initial booster doses.
Broken down by age, data shows 71 per cent of over-65s came forward for the top-up shot owing to the high risk they face.
But among 18 to 24 year olds just 34 per cent came forward for the shots, while for 25 to 49 year olds 41 per cent got the extra inoculation.Â
Even though the latest updated jabs began to be rolled out in early September, data shows that less than four per cent of those eligible have come forward for the shots.
Analysis suggests that the initial vaccine course has saved up to 300,000 lives among seniors — who are most at risk from the virus — in America alone.
And the US booster drive saved another 90,000 lives.
Concerns have been raised, however, over rolling out jabs to children as young as six months old.
Many experts has warned there is precious little evidence the age group — which is least at risk of serious disease or death from the virus — would benefit from the shots.
On the other hand there are also signs they may face a higher risk of myocarditis or pericarditis as a result of the shots.
Studies also suggest 86 per cent of children in America now have Covid fighting antibodies — mostly acquired via natural infection — meaning vaccines are only topping up existing immunity.
Other countries have avoided rolling out jabs to the youngest age groups because of the low risk they face.