This Florida COVID Vaccine 'Analysis' Is — You Guess It — Total Garbage

The press release says the analysis was done by the department, but it was released as a plain PDF without the official health department letterhead and, most importantly, strikingly, no author is listed, which is very unusual. It obviously hasn't been peer reviewed, published in a scientific journal, or even extensively edited.

"The study of the safety and effectiveness of any drug, including vaccines, is an important part of public health," Ladapo said in the press release. "Much less attention has been given to safety and the concerns of many people have been dismissed - these are important findings that should be communicated to Floridians."

Experts bluntly called the analysis "total rubbish", "grossly misleading" and "comically bad". Some called the analysis method "terrible", and one epidemiologist called it "the craziest plan of study and analysis I have ever seen". Others noted that the conclusion "reeks of p-hacking" and data selection.

These reactions probably come as no surprise to anyone who has followed Ladapo's work as Florida's top doctor. Brought in by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2021, Ladapo has spent the pandemic downplaying the threat of COVID-19, fighting public health measures, surrounding himself with prominent anti-vaccine voices, and attacking COVID vaccines. -19 that save lives.

But fearmongering and discouraging the use of COVID-19 vaccines in the midst of the national fall recall campaign and before an expected winter surge may further harm public and individual health. Recall rates in the United States are already abysmal. Less than half of people who received a primary series received a single booster. Only about 38% of people aged 50 and over, who are more vulnerable to serious illnesses, received a second booster. And so far, only 11.5 million Americans, or about 3.5% of the population, have received the updated bivalent booster this fall campaign, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease. Control...