Florida Surgeon General Joseph Radapo announced in October that young men should not receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This is guidance contrary to medical advice issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
his recommendation based on state analysis This indicates a significantly increased risk of cardiac-related death in some age groups after vaccination. It has been criticized by experts, including professors and epidemiologists at the University of Florida, where Radapo is employed as a professor.
A draft analysis now obtained by the Tampa Bay Times shows that this recommendation was made despite conflicting states. data.Indicated Being infected with COVID-19 can make heart-related deaths much more likely than getting the vaccine.
That data was included in previous versions of the state’s analysis, but was not included in the final version compiled and posted online by the Florida Department of Health. Radapo made no mention of the conflicting data in the release issued by the country.
The Times’ request for record called for all previous versions of the state analysis published on October 7. Documentation indicates that at least five drafts were created before the final version was released. One version included a data table showing the number of heart-related deaths from infection. The conclusions of the four drafts ran counter to Radapo’s vaccine claims.
Four epidemiologists who reviewed the draft said the omissions were unexplained and flawed from a scientific point of view.they said, bass For missing data, Radapo’s recommendations should be withdrawn.
Matt Hitchings, an infectious disease epidemiologist and professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida, said the analysis section appears to have been omitted. I wanted to push
“This is a serious breach of research integrity,” Hitchings said. “[Vaccines]have done a lot to improve the health of people in Florida, but he’s making people discredit it.”
General Surgeon State health departments also frequently question the safety of messenger ribonucleic acid or mRNA vaccines developed to combat COVID-19. Last year, Florida became the first state to recommend not vaccinating healthy children and the only state not to pre-order coronavirus her vaccine for children under the age of five.
Radapo declined to answer specific questions about why data showing Floridians at higher risk of infection was removed. In his emailed statement, he backed his guidance and said it wasn’t the first time he had faced criticism for his approach to COVID-19.
“My decisions as a surgeon continue to be guided by raw science rather than fear,” he said. “The safety of the COVID-19 vaccine has received little attention and many concerns have been ignored.These are important findings to share with Floridians.”
His statement also included a link to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ December news release The governor has announced that he has petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to order a statewide grand jury to “investigate any misconduct in Florida regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.”
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In a statement, Radapo said, “We will dictate health guidance so that drug companies can put money in their pockets at a time when public health officials are experiencing the severity of the direct impact in their communities. It would be irresponsible to allow that.” The court has yet to take any action.
A published eight-page state analysis links data from the Florida reportable disease repository known as Merlin, the Florida Health Online Tracking System, and death records from the state’s Bureau of Biostatistics.
We investigated adult cases in Florida who died within 25 weeks of the December 2020 vaccination start and detailed deaths that occurred within 28 days of being vaccinated.
Except for men aged 18 to 39, who had an 84% higher heart-related mortality rate, vaccines reported a “minor” increase in risk.
Radapo, citing the figures in a state non-binding recommendation, said the “abnormally high” risk of cardiac complications from COVID-19 vaccination “probably” outweighs the benefits of vaccination. .
or The findings were based on 20 deaths, a sample size too small for such broad-based conclusions, according to a column by four University of Florida epidemiologists who highlighted concerns and flaws in the analysis. He also pointed out that Radapo’s findings were not supported by clinical data demonstrating that the cause of death met the criteria.
In addition, data on infection risk excluded from published reports indicate that contracting COVID poses a much greater risk for the same age group.
In Florida, the incidence of heart-related deaths from infection was more than 10-fold higher than that of vaccine-related deaths among 18- to 24-year-olds, and more than 5-fold higher among 25- to 39-year-olds. The data are not disaggregated by gender.
State epidemiologists who worked on the report also reached different conclusions than Radapo, the draft suggests.
“The risks associated with COVID-19 infection clearly outweigh the potential risks associated with mRNA vaccination,” says one version.
“The small risks associated with mRNA vaccination must be balanced against the much larger risks associated with COVID-19 infection,” says another version. A similar sentence was found in the published conclusion, but the qualifier “much larger” was removed.
The state’s analysis was also criticized for not including a sensitivity analysis, a way to prove that the results are consistent even if some of the assumptions used in the calculations are changed.
The three versions of the draft have sensitivity analyzes that suggest the increased risk for young men from the vaccine is insignificant, said Jonathan Laxton, a physician and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Manitoba.
“It’s a double check that we didn’t confirm that finding,” Ruxton said.
Departments of the University of Florida School of Medicine, including Hitchings, circulated a report in January critical of the published analysis. It characterized the study and subsequent recommendations as of “highly questionable merit” but concluded that it did not amount to research misconduct.
David Norton, University of Florida In a statement, the Vice Chancellor for Research said that because Radapo oversaw this research in a role with the nation, rather than in a faculty role, UF’s Office of Research Integrity, Security and Compliance “considered allegations and concerns. I am not qualified to do so,” he said. Regarding the integrity of the research” was stated in the report.
After reviewing a draft of the report, Hitchings said the final analysis resembled academic misconduct.
“You can call it a lame lie,” he said.
For Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, downplaying the increased risk of heart-related death from infection remains a top concern. The state has not provided Florida residents with the information they need to make informed decisions about vaccines, she said.
“As a scientist and as a parent, it’s important to know the heart risks from COVID and heart risks from vaccines,” she said.
