Ron DeSantis warns Florida residents under 65 not to get Covid booster shot – against CDC guidance

DeSantis cited a conspiracy theory that global health authorities are using people who choose vaccination as ‘guinea pigs’

The administration of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is not recommending Covid boosters for people under the age of 65.

The recommendation goes against guidance from federal health authorities. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are recommending updated shots for everyone six months and older.

In a statement from DeSantis’s office released 13 September, the governor said, “I will not stand by and let the FDA and CDC use healthy Floridians as guinea pigs for new booster shots that have not been proven to be safe and effective…Florida is the first state in the nation to stand up and provide guidance based on truth, not Washington edicts.”

State Surgeon General Dr Joseph Ladapo, appointed by the governor, echoed DaSantis’s opinions in the statement.

The move comes at a time when health officials are monitoring two new worrisome variants, EG.5 (Eris) and BA.2.86 (Pirola), and both deaths from Covid-19 and hospital admissions are rising. From 27 August to 2 September, hospital admissions rose 8.7 per cent from the previous week, according to the most recent data from the CDC; during that same time period, deaths from the virus rose 10.5 percent.

Though advanced age is a risk factor for severe disease from Covid-19, the virus infects—and, in some cases, is fatal for—people of all ages. According to data from market research company Statista, Covid has killed more than 200,000 people aged 50 to 64; more than 46,000 people aged 40 to 49; nearly 20,000 people aged 30 to 39; nearly 7,000 people aged 18 to 29; and more than 1,600 people under 18 in the US alone.

Not getting the vaccine could also put people—no matter their age—at an increased risk for developing long Covid, per Harvard Health Publishing. Long Covid has been associated with a number of debilitating symptoms, including tiredness or fatigue; fever; difficulty breathing; shortness of breath; cough; heart palpitations; chest pain; headache; sleep issues; difficulty concentrating; lightheadedness; depression; anxiety; diarrhoea; muscle or joint pain; stomach pain; rash; and changes in menstrual cycles, per the CDC.

Long Covid, too, affects people under the age of 65, providing another reason—aside from risk of death and hospitalisation—to consider the vaccine if you fall into that category. According to a report from the CDC, one study suggested that the prevalence of long Covid was highest among people aged 35 to 44 years old.

Experts say it’s also worth noting that Covid cases can take a tremendous toll on our healthcare system. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease researcher at Stanford University, recently tweeted, “One of the issues is that many people think of diseases mainly in terms of their own risk of bad outcomes being low. That works for noncommunicable diseases.” For viruses like Covid, however, there’s more at stake, he said. “But for contagious respiratory viruses with high incidence, you multiply that low risk across hundreds of millions and end up with a big absolute number of bad outcomes.”

Karan previously tweeted research estimating that universal Covid-19 vaccination could prevent at least 200,000 hospitalisations and 15,000 deaths during the next two years.

DeSantis’s claim that the vaccines are not safe and effective goes against messaging from global health authorities. The CDC has noted that more than 672 million doses of Covid vaccines have been administered in the US alone. The vaccines have also been evaluated in tens of thousands of people in clinical trials, and were found to meet the FDA’s standards for safety and effectiveness. Though Republican politicians have publicly painted the vaccines as controversial or dangerous, many have chosen to get the shots to protect themselves. Former president Donald Trump has been vaccinated, per the Associated Press. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also got vaccinated, as did Senator Josh Hawley. DeSantis himself also privately got vaccinated against the virus, per USA Today. Many have questioned why top Republican leaders have chosen to protect themselves through vaccination while publicly portraying the shots as somehow dangerous or controversial.

DeSantis’s guidance comes in a state already seeing the effects of vaccine misinformation: A new survey from the University of South Florida looked at how likely people in the state are to believe false statements about Covid-19. The statement found 42 per cent of respondents thought the statement “Vaccines can cause you to get sick with COVID-19” was either “probably true” or “definitely true”. The same percentage of respondents said “COVID-19 vaccines are causing new variants of the virus to emerge” was “probably true” or “definitely true”. The survey found that Democratic respondents were “significantly more willing” to continue getting updated Covid boosters than their Republican counterparts.

The CDC says that getting the booster ahead of this year’s cold and flu season is one of the best ways to keep yourself and your family healthy. As CDC Director Dr Mandy Cohen said in a recent statement on the vaccines, “We have more tools than ever to prevent the worst outcomes from COVID-19. CDC is now recommending updated COVID-19 vaccination for everyone 6 months and older to better protect you and your loved ones.”