Florida Surgeon General: No shots for tots; but COVID-19 cases on the rise

by | Jun 15, 2022



As the federal Food and Drug Administration weighs approval of COVID-19 vaccinations for children under age 5, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is opposed to the potential change. The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is slated to meet Wednesday to discuss amending emergency-use authorizations for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for children as young as 6 months old.

Ladapo, who has long criticized vaccination requirements for adults, said Tuesday he would not support vaccinating young children against the coronavirus.

“From what I have seen, there is just insufficient data to inform benefits and risk in children. I think that’s very unequivocal,” Ladapo told reporters in Tallahassee.

The surgeon general, who also is secretary of the state Department of Health, said his opinion on vaccinating infants and young children is “consistent” with the department’s other guidance on vaccines.

“We expect to have good data that the benefits outweigh the risks of any therapies or treatments before we recommend those therapies or treatments to Floridians. That is not going to change. I don’t think that is particularly radical. I think it’s very sensible,” Ladapo said.

Meanwhile, the number of Florida hospital inpatients with COVID-19 has jumped to more than 3,300 as case numbers have steadily increased in recent weeks.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services posted data Tuesday that showed 3,324 Florida inpatients had COVID-19. As a comparison, that was up from 2,694 on June 1.

The new data also showed that 345 COVID-19 patients were in intensive-care units. On June 1, that total was 209.

Case numbers and inpatients with COVID-19 have increased as subvariants of the coronavirus have spread in the state. The totals, however, remain lower than early in the year when the omicron variant caused widespread infections.

9 Comments

  1. John

    Ladapo is a quack!

  2. Dave

    Florida’s quack “topdoc” has spoken. It is amazing how many public officials/politicians blatantly push lies, e.g.,fear-mongering covid vaccine mandates for all. But even more amazing is that, with zero substantiation, 10s of thousands of Floridians actually believe this easily disproved lie.

  3. Deborah Coffey

    So, how many people will DeSantis and Ladapo cause to die this time in order to show off their power? Ladapo is an idiot selling voodoo medicine to people who will actually believe him.

  4. sheba100

    If Ladapo does not believe in vaccinations that’s fine for him but he should let the real doctors and the parents of the children decide what is best for each child and their current health.

  5. artist_trader

    Thank you Dr. Ladapo. Keep doing what you are doing. It’s much appreciated.

  6. Anonymous

    The gullible idiots who believe the media really get angry at the people who refuse to be afraid, lol

    • Really?

      Anyone who is not afraid of an organism that has killed over one million in the US alone is the gullible idiot or a Desantis supporter or both.

      • mark

        Excuse me but not all of million deaths were “of covid”. More than half were people that died with covid.

  7. Anonymous

    And I notice that the writer of the article failed to mention in the comments about increase hospital patients, fails to mention how many are children. After all, the focus of the article is children getting vaccinated.

 

What is the most glaring political issue facing Floridians ahead of Legislative Session?
×
%d bloggers like this: