CDC and FDA Blast DeSantis and Ladapo—Again

 

If anyone disagrees with the FDA or the CDC, those agencies will punish those who speak out and do their best to discredit them. Both of these agencies already condemned Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and Governor DeSantis, and they are having to take their licks again, but given the increased pushback that the federal government is getting, Florida is even more adamant about its condemnations of the feds. This was the reaction, in spite of the even-handed comments  of SG Ladapo:

‘With the amount of immunity that’s in the community — with virtually every walking human being having some degree of immunity, and with the questions we have about safety and about effectiveness, especially about safety, my judgment is that it’s not a good decision for young people and for people who are not at high risk at this point in the pandemic,’ he said.

Two medical doctors have challenged Ladapo about his credibility:

Previous guidance by Ladapo about Covid-19 vaccine safety has been widely rejected by the medical community. Daniel Salmon, director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University, said Wednesday it appeared that Ladapo and the others at the roundtable were selectively highlighting data to show problems with the new boosters.

‘In general, they’re cherry-picking data and facts and science,’ Salmon said. “And I think that they’re there, because they don’t want to recommend this vaccine for Florida.’

Is Salmon confused about Dr. Ladapo’s criticism? Does he think that Ladapo is rejecting the new vaccine out of spite? And when people use the “cherry-picking” criticism, you can often be confident that the evidence referenced might actually be accurate.

The other absurd and irrational response to Ladapo came from Jason Salemi, an epidemiology professor at University of South Florida College of Public Health. He claims, for one, that people under 65 are still at risk of death from Covid-19. He neglects to say how high the risk is, because it would damage his credibility. He also said:

‘Equipping ourselves with and implementing mitigation measures can result in considerably less severe illness, less long Covid, and less mortality, all with little impact on our day-to-day lives,’ Salemi wrote in an email. ‘So, there is clearly a need.’

The facts are, unfortunately for Salemi, that we are already experiencing much less severe illness; I suspect he has no data on long Covid, and death rates have dropped significantly since the virus appeared. But when you create your own facts, you can say anything you wish.

Governor DeSantis also continues to be attacked by the CDC and FDA; for one, he refuses to recommend vaccines for children under five. He has also recommended that the Florida legislature prohibit mandatory school mask mandates, and that bars be prohibited from requiring that employees get the vaccine.

Another misleading comment came from Dr. William Schaffner at Vanderbilt University:

‘COVID continues to be one of the 10 leading causes of death,’ Schaffner said. ‘We can keep two thoughts in our mind at the same time. Yes, it is true that children are less seriously affected than, for example, senior citizens.’

He continued, ‘However, although they are less affected, it doesn’t mean they’re unaffected. Indeed, they are infected severely enough.’

Schaffner advised parents who are concerned to directly speak to their children’s pediatricians about the COVID-19 vaccines.

Unfortunately for Dr. Schaffner, Covid is not listed as one of the ten leading causes of death, even as a sub-category; it appears this article collected its data from the CDC, which also does not include Covid in that list. Regarding children’s infection with Covid, I wonder what is their being infected “severely enough?” The only wise suggestion he offered (if a parent trusts her pediatrician) is to check with that doctor regarding vaccination for children.

*     *     *     *

Given the information put out by credible medical sources against the vaccine, the lack of large-scale Covid testing by Big Pharma, and the unwillingness of public health organizations to challenge the CDC and FDA, the Florida Department of Health pushed back on the federal agencies:

‘The response from the federal government is just another redundant display of the same apathetic talking point of ‘safe and effective,’ a spokesperson said in a statement. ‘Googling their fact sheets would have achieved the same result. While the Feds gaslight the American public, Florida pushes for the truth.’

The statement continued, ‘Three inquiries remain unanswered: 1. Access to raw patient-level data to allow for unbiased research. 2. Adequate attention surrounding the risks detected by numerous researchers around the world. 3. Public transparency from the CDC, FDA, and Big Pharma.’

Until Florida gets some answers, it will continue to fight back.

P.S. Watch the Feds push back even more with DeSantis running for President.

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  1. DrewInWisconsin, Œuf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Œuf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Susan Quinn: P.S. Watch the Feds push back even more with DeSantis running for President.

    I hope so. He needs the coverage. And it will give him a chance to let the country know that someone with a sane approach is running for office. (It’s not looking good for him, but if he should pull this off, I hope he picks Ladapo for U.S. Surgeon General.)

    To hell with the FDA and the CDC. They have the blood of thousands on their hands.

    • #1
  2. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    DrewInWisconsin, Œuf (View Comment):
    To hell with the FDA and the CDC. They have the blood of thousands on their hands.

    They do, indeed. I also read that they came after Dr. Ladapo when he changed information on a draft report. How dare he! Someone needs to explain what a draft is; he explained that he received additional information. Of course, they’re trying to say he cooked the books.

    • #2
  3. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    A former Florida surgeon general is rebuking claims by the DeSantis administration that updated COVID-19 vaccines have “not been proven to be safe or effective” and that the shots should not be recommended for individuals under the age of 65.

    The COVID vaccines remain “very, very safe, and have a really proven efficacy, particularly against preventing severe disease,” Dr. Scott Rivkees, the former Florida surgeon general during the initial years of the pandemic, told ABC News.

    ‘If they say that COVID vaccines are not safe and that they are not effective, the onus is on them to show those data,’ Rivkees said.

    Please note that Rivkees is not providing any data to support his position.

    • #3
  4. John Park Member
    John Park
    @jpark

    The key is the absence of large scale testing that would occur for any other drug. We’re guinea pigs for Big Pharma.

    • #4
  5. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    John Park (View Comment):

    The key is the absence of large scale testing that would occur for any other drug. We’re guinea pigs for Big Pharma.

    And I’ve heard nothing about large scale testing. Has anyone else?

    • #5
  6. Scott Wilmot Member
    Scott Wilmot
    @ScottWilmot

    I think “long Covid” is a pseudonym for “Covid Derangement Syndrome”. This has become a mental illness. Does the CDC ever put out information on how to eat healthy, boost one’s immune system, or stay sane? Or do they just push drugs with their Big Pharma buddies. The CDC and FDA are a joke.

    Congrats to DeSantis and Ladapo.

    • #6
  7. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    John Park (View Comment):

    The key is the absence of large scale testing that would occur for any other drug. We’re guinea pigs for Big Pharma.

    And I’ve heard nothing about large scale testing. Has anyone else?

    That would be a very bad idea for Moderna and Pfizer.

    They’ve already sold billions of dollars worth of these new vaccines to the US Government.  

    What if they did a big study and it showed some type of problem?  Further research can only hurt them at this point.

    One common problem with government run health care is misplaced incentives.  They’re not being evil, they’re being practical.  Once the government stops buying this stuff, then perhaps they’ll do more research.  Because they’re being practical.

    Incentives matter.

    • #7
  8. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Scott Wilmot (View Comment):

    I think “long Covid” is a pseudonym for “Covid Derangement Syndrome”. This has become a mental illness. Does the CDC ever put out information on how to eat healthy, boost one’s immune system, or stay sane? Or do they just push drugs with their Big Pharma buddies. The CDC and FDA are a joke.

    Congrats to DeSantis and Ladapo.

    I love your comment, Scott. Yes, I can’t help wondering about long Covid. And have you heard any guidelines from the CDC to deal with co-morbidites, like obesity? It’s so frustrating, because so many people don’t know what is going on.

    • #8
  9. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):
    What if they did a big study and it showed some type of problem?  Further research can only hurt them at this point.

    Good grief! Let’s not worry about the wellbeing of the public! But what you say makes perfect sense, Dr. B–to bigPharma.

    • #9
  10. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    When Dr. Bastiat tells me I should get the vaccine (or wear a stupid mask) I’ll do it. 

    • #10
  11. Fritz Coolidge
    Fritz
    @Fritz

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    John Park (View Comment):

    The key is the absence of large scale testing that would occur for any other drug. We’re guinea pigs for Big Pharma.

    And I’ve heard nothing about large scale testing. Has anyone else?

    What I saw in reference to one company’s latest and greatest so-called vaccine is that it was tested on a few dozen mice, no human testing at all before receiving FDA approval. Sounds unbelievable, but these days? Who knows?

    • #11
  12. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Can someone give me feedback on the credibility of a poll that was taken? The results seemed to divide according to party affiliation, with about 2/3 of Democrats trusting the vaccines.

     

    The fine print
    Researchers from the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University, sponsored by the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, surveyed 600 Florida adults. The poll was conducted Aug. 10 to 21 using an online survey through market research firm Prodege MR.
    The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Because subgroups (such as Democrats and Republicans or men and women) are smaller than in the overall poll, the margins of error are higher for those groups.

    • #12
  13. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):
    One common problem with government run health care is misplaced incentives

    This is why those acting on the available facts like DeSantis and Lapado and all those medical professionals who have opposed any mandatory government requirements for the Covid vaccines have been constantly attacked by medical professionals closely connected with various institutions benefitting from the government spending largesse.

    • #13
  14. Scott Wilmot Member
    Scott Wilmot
    @ScottWilmot

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Can someone give me feedback on the credibility of a poll that was taken? The results seemed to divide according to party affiliation, with about 2/3 of Democrats trusting the vaccines.

     

    The fine print
    Researchers from the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University, sponsored by the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, surveyed 600 Florida adults. The poll was conducted Aug. 10 to 21 using an online survey through market research firm Prodege MR.
    The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Because subgroups (such as Democrats and Republicans or men and women) are smaller than in the overall poll, the margins of error are higher for those groups.

    Your question makes me think of this meme:

    • #14
  15. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    It appears that Ladopo is right that (a) natural immunity is better and longer-lasting protection than vaccination and (b) at this point, most people have had some exposure.  Natural immunity plus vaccines is better at reducing symptoms than natural or vaccine immunity alone but only better for a few months and the duration of beneficial effects of additional shots seems to decrease with each shot.

    For young people to get a shot that may or may not have some adverse effects just to get a slightly milder version of a flu that they are not likely to get in a serious form anyway (and protection only if they contract the infection within the 3-6 month post-injection interval) does not seem like something that should be recommended much less mandated.

    For metabolically or immunologically challenged old geezers, it is a different calculus and the shot as a prophylactic makes a great deal of sense–and potential long-term effects matter less for the long-term-challenged.  But limiting the market to the aged would mean a much smaller Cha-Ching! for Pharma so the Institute of Vaccine Safety will break out the pom poms to cheer for mandated sales.

    Before they presume to call out Lapopo, I would like to see some mea culpas for overstated claims about duration of vaccine effectiveness, claims about vaccines preventing transmission, and admissions that the concepts of transmission that assumed mask mandates and closures would be impactful were deeply flawed.  

    The Vaccine Safety Institute is congenitally incapable of criticizing the performance of the CDC or FDA.  They proudly refuse Pharma money (after the initial startup funding 25 years ago) because they are funded by Johns Hopkins which feeds at the federal trough.  [Trash Fauci or the CDC and see what happens to federal grant money…] And anyone who parrots CDC forfeits the right to accuse anyone of “cherry-picking”:  CDC selection of links on mask use were of atrocious quality and served The Narrative.  

    • #15
  16. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    What I like best about Dr. Ladapo is that his dad is a microbiologist. He understands this bug differently from the way other doctors are looking at it. He’s obviously been looking at the same data the CDC and others are looking at, but his conclusion is that human beings have responded, in fits and starts for sure but responded nevertheless, to this novel human-twisted corona virus as they have always responded to viruses. He thinks we are out of the woods now. He would know, and I believe him.

    Dr. Ladapo comes from the same academic milieu as the CDC doctors. They cannot–though they might try–discount what he says. His educational background is the same as theirs.

    • #16
  17. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    From today’s WSJ opinion page–

     

    The FDA last week approved updated boosters based on data showing they generated antibodies and past studies purportedly demonstrating that the original vaccine and earlier booster versions worked. But these are large extrapolations based on flimsy evidence. No placebo-controlled trials have shown the boosters are effective, and studies on prior boosters systemically suffer from what scientists call ‘healthy user bias’—the process by which healthier people, who are more likely to receive a treatment, skew retrospective analyses.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/dayquil-covid-vaccine-boosters-and-fda-science-medicine-study-pill-placebo-sick-bb9e457b?st=2nt6aojc8mgkkuu&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • #17
  18. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Can someone give me feedback on the credibility of a poll that was taken? The results seemed to divide according to party affiliation, with about 2/3 of Democrats trusting the vaccines.

     

    The fine print
    Researchers from the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University, sponsored by the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, surveyed 600 Florida adults. The poll was conducted Aug. 10 to 21 using an online survey through market research firm Prodege MR.
    The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Because subgroups (such as Democrats and Republicans or men and women) are smaller than in the overall poll, the margins of error are higher for those groups.

    Are those the same 2/3rds of Democrats who said they wouldn’t take it while Trump was in office?

    • #18
  19. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    In addition to all the factual references you cite, which repeatedly show the inherent riskiness of the COV vaccine program, as well as its lack of efficacy, there is the recent Chuck Todd interview of Gov Gavin  Newsom.

    In the interview, Newsom pulls out a lot of side-stepping sophisticated language too no avail.

    Todd makes mincemeat of Newsom. The man admits that basically everything he opined and decreed was wrong, wrong, WRONG!

    Jimmy Dore had fun with this interview. It is up and running on Dore’s youtube channel.

    So why is it that the CDC and FDA must push ahead with defending the COV vax program? While comments made by officials regarding the soon-to-be-enforced Fed mandates for everyone indicate what our probable future will be.

    There are two reasons, and whether either is true or both are true, I don’t know.

    Reason One: Only by enforcing a mandate on all Americans will the vaccine industry wipe out the control group of those Americans who did not get the vaccine.

    That is some 25% of us.

    I don’t state this as praise for us in this group. I gave up nothing by remaining vax free. My county in Calif had restaurants open where no one was forced to show a vax certificate in order to eat there. My household’s soc security bennies showed up and my business remained open. But others were forced to get jabbed to have a job, an income  and health insurance.

    Wiping out the control group mean that there would be no way going forward to show that the continuing escalation of deaths & hospitalization among the vaxxed crowd has relevance.

    If all 100% of us Americans are vaxxed, then the myo,  blood clots, early onset Alzheimers, miscarriages, loss of fertility becoming 98%, etc plus escalating fatalities can & will be blamed on some new variant to be released 3 months or so after the Federally mandated COV vaxxes are.

    Reason Two: The whole matter of insistence on a vax for everyone even though the injection has long term effects which won’t be fully known  known for a decade & we now know the paltry clinical trials were fraudulent could be part of a de pop program.

    Three & a half years ago, I would have thought the idea that any governmental policies would support a de pop program to be ludicrous to the point of being hilarious.

    But after the past 3 years, when “health officials” ignored such matters as the innate abilities of those who’d survive COVID infection to resist all future COV strains, to my daily  witness of  hospital admins encourage withholding actual remedies, medically kidnapping patients & another 60 things of equal demonic origin, I can’t avoid thinking this is both an active & passive de pop program.

    Passive de pop? A German physician of some renown recently released electron microscope slides showing how spike proteins replaced 100% of the sperm in vaxxed man’s testes.

    • #19
  20. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    • #20
  21. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    From today’s WSJ opinion page–

     

    The FDA last week approved updated boosters based on data showing they generated antibodies and past studies purportedly demonstrating that the original vaccine and earlier booster versions worked. But these are large extrapolations based on flimsy evidence. No placebo-controlled trials have shown the boosters are effective, and studies on prior boosters systemically suffer from what scientists call ‘healthy user bias’—the process by which healthier people, who are more likely to receive a treatment, skew retrospective analyses.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/dayquil-covid-vaccine-boosters-and-fda-science-medicine-study-pill-placebo-sick-bb9e457b?st=2nt6aojc8mgkkuu&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    Thank you for adding this to the conversation.

    Of course flimsy evidence backed by one certain item becomes science-y overnight!

    • #21
  22. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    My mother has long term effects from Covid

    • #22
  23. QuietPI Member
    QuietPI
    @Quietpi

    Fercryinoutloud! Something just occurred to me, and I looked up ivermectin in “United States Pharmacopeia” (USP).  Sure enough, here’s the listing of ivermectin as a drug for humans:

    https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/fda/fdaDrugXsl.cfm?setid=847a1dd7-d65b-4a0e-a67d-d90392059dac&type=display

    Sorry, CDC, FDA, you haven’t got a leg left to stand on.  

     

    • #23
  24. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    QuietPI (View Comment):

    Fercryinoutloud! Something just occurred to me, and I looked up ivermectin in “United States Pharmacopeia” (USP). Sure enough, here’s the listing of ivermectin as a drug for humans:

    https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/fda/fdaDrugXsl.cfm?setid=847a1dd7-d65b-4a0e-a67d-d90392059dac&type=display

    Sorry, CDC, FDA, you haven’t got a leg left to stand on.

     

    Where have you been?  FDA reversed their position on Ivermectin just last month, I think it was.  Although I’m sure they don’t admit to having been WRONG.

    • #24
  25. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    My mother has long term effects from Covid

    What I know about chronic lung infections in general would support that possibility. It shouldn’t be discounted. 

    Extended respiration therapy would help patients who are having that problem, I would think. 

    • #25
  26. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    kedavis (View Comment):

    QuietPI (View Comment):

    Fercryinoutloud! Something just occurred to me, and I looked up ivermectin in “United States Pharmacopeia” (USP). Sure enough, here’s the listing of ivermectin as a drug for humans:

    https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/fda/fdaDrugXsl.cfm?setid=847a1dd7-d65b-4a0e-a67d-d90392059dac&type=display

    Sorry, CDC, FDA, you haven’t got a leg left to stand on.

    Where have you been? FDA reversed their position on Ivermectin just last month, I think it was. Although I’m sure they don’t admit to having been WRONG.

    I thought I saw that too, but a couple of days ago, I went looking on the Internet to find that story, and everything I’ve read says they haven’t approved it.

    Do you have a link to that story? I’d love to see it again. It’s as if it disappeared.

    • #26
  27. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    MarciN (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    QuietPI (View Comment):

    Fercryinoutloud! Something just occurred to me, and I looked up ivermectin in “United States Pharmacopeia” (USP). Sure enough, here’s the listing of ivermectin as a drug for humans:

    https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/fda/fdaDrugXsl.cfm?setid=847a1dd7-d65b-4a0e-a67d-d90392059dac&type=display

    Sorry, CDC, FDA, you haven’t got a leg left to stand on.

    Where have you been? FDA reversed their position on Ivermectin just last month, I think it was. Although I’m sure they don’t admit to having been WRONG.

    I thought I saw that too, but a couple of days ago, I went looking on the Internet to find that story, and everything I’ve read says they haven’t approved it.

    Do you have a link to that story? I’d love to see it again. It’s as if it disappeared.

    Did you check the dates of the other stories?  Maybe they’re older.  I’ve encountered that before.

    • #27
  28. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    MarciN (View Comment):

    I thought I saw that too, but a couple of days ago, I went looking on the Internet to find that story, and everything I’ve read says they haven’t approved it.

    Do you have a link to that story? I’d love to see it again. It’s as if it disappeared.

    Here’s what I just found:

    The agency has not changed its guidance on the drug. A spokesperson told PolitiFact that the FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19.

    • #28
  29. DrewInWisconsin, Œuf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Œuf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    QuietPI (View Comment):

    Fercryinoutloud! Something just occurred to me, and I looked up ivermectin in “United States Pharmacopeia” (USP). Sure enough, here’s the listing of ivermectin as a drug for humans:

    https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/fda/fdaDrugXsl.cfm?setid=847a1dd7-d65b-4a0e-a67d-d90392059dac&type=display

    Sorry, CDC, FDA, you haven’t got a leg left to stand on.

    The FDA is being sued for their “You’re not a horse!” Tweet.

    Which is lovely.

    Ironically, the Carter Center (that’s Democrat President Jimmy Carter’s thing) has been distributing millions of doses of Ivermectin around the world since the 90s. I imagine it came as some surprise to them to learn that they were giving people horse medicine. Did the FDA know they were standing in opposition to Jimmy Carter!?

     

     

     

    • #29
  30. DrewInWisconsin, Œuf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Œuf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    My mother has long term effects from Covid

    I’ve known a few people who suffered very long-term effects, so I am not willing to say “Long COVID doesn’t exist, it’s all in their heads.”

    I may still have an issue myself, which is annoying, since my bout with COVID was pratically asymptomatic.

    • #30
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