COVID Added To CDC Vax Schedule; FL Law On Vaccinations

FLORIDA — The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention's advisory committee on immunization practices voted unanimously Thursday to add COVID-19 vaccines and boosters to the CDC's recommended immunization schedule for children ages 6 months and older and adults.

The recommendation, however, doesn't translate into a CDC mandate; the final say on vaccine requirements in the state remains with Florida officials. The CDC vote simply makes the COVID-19 shots part of the agency's vaccine program for children, which provides many types of free inoculations to millions of kids every year.

As the nation’s public health protection agency, the CDC has the statutory authority to implement regulations to safeguard the public's health and safety, but cannot issue vaccination mandates.

It falls under the authority of individual states to establish and enforce vaccination requirements, according to the CDC.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has been unequivocal in his objections to any vaccine mandates.

Last November, he signed legislation that protects Floridians from losing their jobs due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates by employers, including the federal government, and protects the right of parents to decide whether or not their child will be vaccinated.

His decision was backed by Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, who has publicly questioned the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

According to the Florida COVID dashboard — which is only updated once every two weeks and last had data entered Oct. 7 — the state had a seven-day rolling average of 7.1 percent positive cases, down from over 12 percent in mid-September. In total for the week shown, Florida had 10,793 new cases of the disease; the state has recorded a total of 7,129,245 cases throughout the pandemic.

For the same period, Florida had 49 COVID deaths, with a total of 81,661 deaths over the entire pandemic.

Earlier this month, Ladapo was lambasted by members of the medical community when he issued new guidance regarding messenger RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, which constitute the majority of COVID-19 vaccines,

Lapado said men ages 18 to 39 should not receive mRNA COVID-19 vaccines based on analysis of mRNA vaccines by the Florida Department of Health using a self-controlled case series to evaluate vaccine safety.

These vaccines use genetically engineered mRNA to give cells instructions to make the protein found on the surface of the COVID-19 virus, resulting in the creation of antibodies to fight the virus.

The Florida DOH analysis found that there is an 84 percent increase in the incidence of cardiac-related death among males 18-39 years old within 28 days following mRNA vaccinations.

Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines use mRNA.

"With a high level of global immunity to COVID-19, the benefit of vaccination is likely outweighed by this abnormally high risk of cardiac-related death among men in this age group," Ladapo said.

When Ladapo posted his recommendation on Twitter, it ignited a firestorm of criticism from the medical community, resulting in Twitter temporarily blocking his account.

Defending his recommendation, Lapado maintained that he was sharing critical information that men should know, especially if they have preexisting conditions such as myocarditis and pericarditis.

“Studying the safety and efficacy of any medications, including vaccines, is an important component of public health,” said Ladapo. “Far less attention has been paid to safety and the concerns of many individuals have been dismissed – these are important findings that should be communicated to Floridians.”

He noted that non-mRNA vaccines did not pose an increased risk, so men in this age group can still be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The CDC said there are two non-RNA alternatives.

The Novavax vaccine contains proteins of the virus that causes COVID-19 and another ingredient that helps the immune system respond to that COVID-19 protein. The vaccine causes the immune system to respond to the presence of the protein to protect the person against COVID-19.

This is the same type of vaccine used for hepatitis B and whooping cough.

Men can also be vaccinated with a "viral vector" vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson's Janssen, These vaccines contain a vector virus to trigger an immune response to the COVID-19 spike proteins.

Viral vector vaccines have been used to fight Zika, the flu and HIV.