Florida Issues Blatantly False “Guidance” on Latest COVID-19 Boosters

New guidance from the Florida Department of Health includes disinformation directed at people who are considering getting vaccinated with the new COVID-19 boosters, wrongly describing the vaccinations as untested and dangerous.

In reality, the vaccinations have been tested and provide updated protection from new coronavirus variants. They have been approved for use by both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Florida’s guidance says that State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo “advises against the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines,” including for “patients over the age of 65 or with underlying health conditions” — populations that are most vulnerable to the effects of the virus. The guidance includes many unfounded claims about the newest booster, including wrongly asserting that it targets a variant of COVID-19 that is no longer circulating; that boosters didn’t undergo rigorous testing; that too many booster shots create “unknown risks;” and more falsehoods that are easily disprovable.

The guidance also advises Floridians to stay physically active, to spend time outdoors and to prioritize “vegetables and healthy fats,” implying that these actions would better serve them than booster shots.

The guidance provides no evidence to back up its recommendations.

The CDC is currently advising everyone over the age of 6 months old to get the updated coronavirus booster shot. Contrary to Florida’s guidance, according to the CDC:

It is especially important to get your 2024–2025 COVID-19 vaccine if you are ages 65 and older, are at high risk for severe COVID-19, or have never received a COVID-19 vaccine.

A KFF report on Florida’s guidance states that it is based on “a number of false or unproven claims about the efficacy and safety of mRNA-based COVID vaccines,” including the false claim that “the integrity of the human genome” could be threatened by the vaccines. The report also notes that medical leaders in Florida are reluctant to push back against the advisory from the State Surgeon General’s office, fearing retribution from Ladapo or from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

When the pandemic was at its worst, DeSantis frequently flouted guidance from the CDC, reopening his state prematurely and putting many of its residents at risk. Coronavirus continues to be a problem for Florida, despite winding down significantly in most of the country — indeed, more than 3,000 Floridians have died due to the virus over the past year. State workers who have tried to shine a light on the state government’s dangerous practices (including concealing data showing the gravity of the virus’s spread) have been terminated and harassed for their efforts.

“What you see is a pattern of fear and neglect of professional responsibilities across the state, in part because of the fear of this governor and the vindictiveness of this governor,” said Jeffrey Goldhagen, a pediatrician and professor at the University of Florida in Jacksonville.

The FDA has pushed back against Ladapo’s recommendations, with a spokesperson stating that the federal agency “strongly disagrees with the State Surgeon General of Florida’s characterization of the safety and effectiveness of the updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.”

COVID-19 is nowhere near as deadly as it was during the height of the pandemic, but it is still causing harm to hundreds across the U.S. each week. The virus accelerated over the summer, with hospitalization rates rising in July, consistent with how it has behaved in the past four years. Over the past few months, Florida has seen a steep increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.

Since 2020, nearly 1.2 million Americans have died from COVID-19. In the first week of September 2024, around 880 people died due to coronavirus, a rate that is similar to what was seen in early March 2020, when the virus was first taking off in the U.S.