“It’s a lie”: Ron DeSantis’ surgeon general accused of personally altering COVID vaccine study

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo altered a state study about COVID-19 vaccines to imply that some doses placed young men at high risk for cardiac deaths, according to Politico.

Ladapo’s changes, which were released as part of a public records request, claimed a higher risk of cardiac-related deaths than earlier versions of the study, according to the report.

The anti-vax ally of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed in October that young adult men from ages 18-39 should avoid taking the mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, warning of an “abnormally high risk” of cardiac-related deaths. Ladapo only cited one piece of evidence for his findings — a brief state analysis without authors that had not been peer-reviewed. His statement, linked to in a tweet at the time, was removed by Twitter after being labeled misinformation. It was subsequently reposted by the social media platform. 

Ladapo’s seeming politicization of the pandemic did not go over well with medical experts at the time, and the Harvard-trained physician faced significant backlash from other experts.

The newly surfaced study, titled “Dr. L’s Edits,” show that Ladapo replaced initial statements in the documents that said there was no significant risk associated with the COVID-19 vaccines for young men. 

“Results from the stratified analysis for cardiac related death following vaccination suggests mRNA vaccination may be driving the increased risk in males, especially among males aged 18-39,” Ladapo’s edits read. “The risk associated with mRNA vaccination should be weighed against the risk associated with COVID-19 infection.”

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Speaking to Politico, Ladapo attempted to qualify the revisions by saying that they are standard practice when assessing surveillance data.

“To say that I ‘removed an analysis’ for a particular outcome is an implicit denial of the fact that the public has been the recipient of biased data and interpretations since the beginning of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine campaign,” he said. “I have never been afraid of disagreement with peers or media.”

Ladapo added that he felt the study held significant importance since “the federal government and Big Pharma continue to misrepresent risks associated with these vaccines.”

“I think it’s a lie,” Matt Hitchings, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida, told Politico of Ladapo’s study

“What’s clear from the previous analysis, and even more clear from Dr. L’s edits, is that absolutely there was a political motivation behind the final analysis that was produced,” Hitchings added. “Key information was withheld from the public that would have allowed them or other experts to interpret this in context.”

The report comes after an anonymous internal complaint made last year accusing Ladapo of “scientific fraud” for purportedly modifying the study.