[PREVIEW] Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo: CDC’s Promotion of New Boosters 'Ludicrous' | ATL:NOW

“You have the initial trials that were large, but too short. And ever since then, every subsequent study has not been sufficiently large or sufficiently long to really understand [the] characteristics of these vaccines.” Dr. Joseph Ladapo is Florida’s State Health Officer and Surgeon General. He recently issued a new guidance that recommended against getting the latest COVID-19 booster. “The reality is that there are no clinical trials. And for the FDA to point to clinical trials that were performed almost three years ago ... as justification for making a decision now, when immunity is completely different, the circulating viruses and their pathogenicity—how serious they are in terms of the gravity of illness they cause—is completely different: ‘ludicrous’ doesn't even begin to capture it,” says Dr. Ladapo. He points to multiple studies around the globe that have found COVID-19 boosters to be associated with negative effectiveness, which means that after a period of time, individuals who receive them experience an even higher risk of contracting COVID-19 than individuals who didn’t. He argues that for a vaccine to potentially be increasing the risk of infection over time is a “very concerning safety signal.”