TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Florida will advise most citizens against taking the latest COVID-19 booster shot because there is not enough data to show the vaccine’s potential benefits outweigh the potential risks.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for president, and Florida surgeon Joseph Ladapo discussed the vaccine with doctors in a Zoom call that was broadcast live on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. They repeated much of what they said a week ago during a live event in Jacksonville, speaking out against the vaccine that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week had allowed.
“This has obviously been a flashpoint in our partnership,” DeSantis said Wednesday. “In Florida, we obviously took a different approach.” The debate began with the words “NO WAY FDA” on the screen before DeSantis introduced the doctors.
“We continue to live in a world where the CDC and the FDA, at least when it comes to COVID, are just going their own way in a direction that is inexplicable in terms of thinking about the data and thinking about common sense he said to Ladapo.
Ladapo’s previous warnings about COVID-19 vaccines led to a public letter from federal health officials saying his claims were harmful to the public. The FDA and CDC sent the letter in March to Ladapo, a DeSantis appointee who has drawn nationwide criticism for aligning closely with the governor against COVID-19 vaccination mandates and other health policies adopted by the federal government.
