DeSantis’ Dubious COVID-19 Vaccine Claims

While announcing a request for a grand jury probe into “crimes and wrongdoing” related to the COVID-19 vaccines, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his panel of contrarian experts repeatedly suggested the shots were too risky. But such claims are unsupported and based on flawed analyses.

The vast majority of scientists, public health officials and other experts have endorsed the vaccines because the original randomized controlled trials and subsequent safety and effectiveness studies have shown the shots provide good protection against severe disease and death, with few safety concerns.

Although rare, the main serious side effect of the mRNA vaccines, which are the shots nearly all vaccinated Americans have received, is inflammation of the heart or its surrounding tissue, known as myocarditis or pericarditis. At 106 cases per million doses, the risk is highest for teenage males after the second dose, but is still rare, and most cases appear to resolve within a few months.

Facing a possible winter surge of COVID-19, public health experts have encouraged people, particularly higher risk individuals of any age and older folks, to get vaccinated with the omicron-updated bivalent boosters from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna. As of Dec. 14, fewer than 17% of American adults — and just over a third of those over 65 — have received an updated booster.

But in the state with the highest percentage of people over the age of 65, DeSantis and his cadre of invited experts did the opposite, casting doubt on the vaccines and playing up their risks in a Dec. 13 roundtable event.

“The safe and