In a controversial move, Florida’s Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, urged a suspension of Covid vaccine use on Wednesday, asserting unfounded concerns that contaminants in the vaccines could permanently alter human DNA. Dr. Ladapo, the highest-ranking health official in the state, released a statement through the Florida Department of Health, declaring, “These vaccines are not appropriate for use in human beings.”
Despite rigorous scientific evidence contradicting his assertions, federal health officials and experts have consistently refuted Dr. Ladapo’s statements. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated on Wednesday that it found no “safety concerns related to the sequence of, or amount of, residual DNA” in the vaccines.
Both Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid vaccines utilize messenger RNA (mRNA) to instruct the body to produce immune molecules against the coronavirus. Dr. Ladapo’s recent statement aligns with Florida’s escalating anti-vaccine stance, a position he has increasingly embraced since he was appointed surgeon general in 2021 by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Dr. Ladapo has drawn criticism for his previous anti-vaccine positions, including advising against healthy children receiving the vaccines and recommending young men avoid mRNA vaccines due to a purported high risk of cardiac death, a conclusion disputed by altering study findings. His latest claim raises concerns about its impact on vaccine uptake in Florida, a state with low vaccination rates.
Medical experts, including John Wherry, a vaccine expert and director of the Institute for Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania, have criticized Dr. Ladapo’s statements as “very irresponsible” and reflective of a “tenuous grasp of science and medicine.”
Federal agencies, responding to Dr. Ladapo’s previous claims, detailed the implausibility of his assertions and emphasized the vaccines’ role in saving millions of lives. As COVID cases surge across the United States, with low vaccine uptake contributing to continued illness and death, the FDA expressed firm support for the safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality of approved COVID-19 vaccines.
In his latest declaration, Dr. Ladapo suggested that vaccine contaminants might integrate into human DNA, potentially causing chromosomal instability and leading to cancerous cells. However, experts in virology and immunology have dismissed these ideas as nonsensical. The FDA condemned Dr. Ladapo’s opinions, stating its disagreement and underscoring the importance of vaccination in the ongoing fight against COVID-19.
