Prior to its publication in October 2022, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo personally altered a Florida Department of Health Covid vaccine study to exaggerate the risks of cardiac death for young men according to a document obtained through a public records request.
The study initially disclaimed any significant risk associated with Covid-19 vaccines for young men but Ladapo “replaced that language to say that men between 18 and 39 years old are at high risk of heart illness from two Covid vaccines that use mRNA technology.” After making the change, Ladapo then used the study to discourage people from getting the Covid-19 booster, directly contradicting the advice of the Centers for Disease Control.
An anonymous internal complaint accusing Ladapo of scientific fraud for manipulating the final draft of the study had previously been filed but was dropped after the inspector general could not get in contact with the tipper.