Florida Surgeon General Warns Life-Threatening VAERS Reports up 4,400 Percent Since COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

Claiming that the shots are 'safe and effective' is unconscionable, Ladapo says

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo (L) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at the governor's office in Tallahassee on Feb. 24, 2022, in a still from video. Florida Governor's Office/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is sounding the alarm about a 4,400 percent increase in life-threatening conditions reported in the state to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) since the 2021 rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines.

In a letter dated Feb. 15, Ladapo asks the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “promote transparency in health care professionals to accurately communicate the risks these vaccines pose.”

VAERS, co-managed by the FDA and CDC, documents reports of injuries and conditions related to vaccines.

Two women hold signs raising awareness about the possibility of vaccine injuries at the 2019 Daytona 500 NASCAR race in Daytona Beach, Fla. Courtesy of PeopleOverPolitics.org

“In Florida alone, we saw a 1,700 percent increase in reports after the release of the COVID-19 vaccine, compared to an increase of 400 percent in vaccine administration for the same period,” Ladapo’s letter reads. “The reporting of life-threatening conditions increased 4,400 percent. ”

“Even the H1N1 vaccine did not trigger this type of response,” reads the letter.

In 2009, during the H1N1 vaccination campaign, 1358 reports were made to the VAERS system in Florida.

After the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in 2021, 41,473 reports of adverse reactions were made to VAERS.

In his letter, Ladapo cites a study on the website of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) entitled, “Serious adverse events of special interest following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in randomized trials in adults.”

The study lists documented reactions including coagulation disorders, acute cardiac injuries, Bell’s Palsy, and encephalitis.

“To claim these vaccines are ’safe and effective' while minimizing and disregarding the adverse events is unconscionable,” Ladapo’s letter to federal health officials reads.

Warning to Floridians

In addition to the letter, the Florida Department of Health has issued a health alert related to the safety of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

“The state surgeon general is notifying the health care sector and the public of a substantial increase in Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System reports from Florida after the COVID-19 vaccine rollout,” the warning reads.

VAERS relies on healthcare professionals and individuals to report adverse reactions. But some have worried that findings have been downplayed by the media and even censored by Big Tech.

In January 2022, after the number of reported COVID-19 vaccine adverse events reported hit one million, Senator Ron Johnson posted a graphic from the VAERS website to Twitter.

“Unsurprisingly, Twitter blocked my VAERS chart tweet,” Johnson wrote later in a post.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) (L) speaks at a press conference demanding a Senate vote on ending the military COVID-19 vaccine mandate, in Washington on Nov. 30, 2022, in a still from a livestream released by NTD. NTD

“This is just another painful reminder why where there is risk, there must be choice,” Florida civil rights attorney and medical freedom advocate Louis Leo IV told The Epoch Times in a written statement when asked for comment.

“Anyone who was unlawfully coerced into being vaccinated [e.g. employees forced by employers] without informed consent, and suffered injuries, should have recourse through both the civil and criminal justice systems,” he wrote.

Shielded from Liability

Leo, who founded the Florida Civil Rights Coalition, challenged mask mandates and defended Floridians who were arrested for violating COVID-19 orders.

He’s frustrated that, because of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, vaccine makers are shielded from liability for damages caused by their products.

But there may be some actions that can be taken on the state level, he said.

“I am very thankful that Governor DeSantis, as well as Florida’s new surgeon general, Dr. Ladapo, are both protecting Floridian’s rights to medical freedom and exposing the deadly vaccine program.

“But there is a lot more work to be done both by the executive and legislative branches of our government, including enacting SB 222 and HB 305 this legislative session,” Leo wrote.

A nurse administers a COVID-19 vaccine during an event held by the San Francisco 49ers and other groups in Santa Clara, Calif., on April 8, 2021. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Leo believes VAERS data has been downplayed and even censored.

“What we are seeing in VAERS is likely just the tip of the iceberg and it’s beyond alarming,” he said.

According to a 2010 federal study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and performed by Harvard consultants, “fewer than 1 percent of vaccine adverse events” are ever reported to VAERS.

In spite of the VAERS numbers, the Biden administration has not shown any sign of reversing course, Ladapo noted.

“It is not appropriate to be giving people a medication, or a vaccine in this case, that increases their risk of dropping dead by 80 percent,” Ladapo said in an August 2022 interview on “Steve Bannon’s War Room” television show on the Real America’s Voice network.

And Ladapo wrote in a post on Twitter, “While the Biden administration and Big Pharma continue to blindly push mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, Florida remains dedicated to public health concerns guided by data and common sense.”

At DeSantis’s request, Florida convened a grand jury in December 2022 to investigate the COVID-19 vaccines.

“We now have created a public health integrity committee with some of the best researchers and medical professionals in the country to ... get the truth about evidence-based medicine and not be fed all the propaganda that we have been fed the last two years,” DeSantis said at a press conference.

“Remember they were wanting to mandate it on everybody with vax passports because they said if you get it you won’t get COVID but that was not true. That fueled a lot of the mandates that were done. Think of what that did to people’s lives.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the CDC and the FDA for comment, but did not receive a response.