Dr Joseph Ladapo, a Harvard-trained doctor who was appointed by Florida’s Republican Governor and Donald Trump rival Ron DeSantis, made the claims at a recent press conference. Democrats reacted with fury, claiming “more people are going to die from Covid” as a result.
The new jabs, which target an Omicron subvariant named BA.2.86, are yet to receive FDA approval for safety, effectiveness and quality – or to be signed-off by the CDC. However, this approval is expected to come early next week.
And the FDA and CDC have previously accused Ladapo of “fueling vaccine hesitancy”. They said claims he repeated about other Covid vaccines increasing the risk of life-threatening conditions were “incorrect, misleading and could be harmful to the American public”.
However, speaking at a conference on Wednesday (September 6) Ladapo said there was no evidence to support getting the new booster shots – and claimed that there are ‘red flags’ regarding its safety.
He also claimed global studies showed people who had the boosters were more likely to catch Covid. He told the conference: “Listen inside to what makes sense, what feels right, you know, what feels like truth. We all know it when we feel it inside.”
Ladapo, who advised people to adopt healthy nutrition habits, claimed there had been no clinical trials to show that the new shots are safe or of benefit. However, this claim has been disputed.
Dr Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, told Fox News that, because the new vaccine was only a slight variation of the previous version, “there is no reason for full clinical trials prior to use.” He said that vaccines “have been given to trillions around the world and in the vast majority of cases, they are safe.”
DeSantis, who joined Lapado at the conference, claimed that the FDA and CDC “have basically become an arm of Big Pharma”.
“Pharma will make more money if this thing is approved and they start pushing it on everybody,” said DeSantis. However, the Republican presidential nomination hopeful offered no specific opinion on the new booster jab.
Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax all have manufactured versions of the updated vaccine.
The CDC and FDA have not yet issued a response to Ladapo’s claims. However, Tina Polsky – a state senator who had Ladapo removed from her office during the pandemic when he refused to wear a mask – accused him of “lying about scientific data”.
“The overwhelming scientific evidence is that vaccines are helpful and safe. The surgeon general is lying to people and scaring people, and the effect is going to be that more people are going to die from Covid,” said Polsky.
“This is our top scientist, and he’s lying about scientific data. It truly freaks me out that there are many people who are going to listen to that.”
Back in March, the FDA and CDC issued a joint response to Ladapo’s claims about the safety of previous Civid vaccines. They said they wanted to “correct the associated misinterpretations and misinformation about the data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)”.
They said: “Serious adverse events from COVID-19 vaccines are rare and are far outweighed by the benefits of these vaccines for every age group.
“The claim that the increase of VAERS reports of life-threatening conditions reported from Florida and elsewhere represents an increase of risk caused by the COVID-19 vaccines is incorrect, misleading and could be harmful to the American public.”
The letter said that “reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination do not mean that a vaccine caused the event”.
“Recent concerns about increased reports of cardiovascular events provide an instructive example of the need to do further analysis when increased reporting of an event occurs,” continued the open letter.
“Despite increased reports of these events, when the concern was examined in detail by cardiovascular experts, the risk of stroke and heart attack was actually lower in people who had been vaccinated, not higher.”
It said that “misinformation about COVID-19 vaccine safety has caused some Americans to avoid getting the vaccines they need to be up to date” and that this “has led to unnecessary death, severe illness and hospitalization”.
The letter concluded: “We stand firmly behind the safety and effectiveness of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which are fully supported by the available scientific data. Staying up to date on vaccination is the best way to reduce the risks of death and serious illness or hospitalization from COVID-19.
“Misleading people by overstating the risks, or emphasizing the risks without acknowledging the overwhelming benefits, unnecessarily causes vaccine hesitation and puts people at risk of death or serious illness that could have been prevented by timely vaccination.”
