Florida governor seeks accountability for COVID response 'blunders and falsehoods’

Florida governor Ron DeSantis (background Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo)

This week, Florida governor Ron DeSantis announced the establishment of a “Public Health Integrity Committee.”

The committee will be tasked with making critical assessments of the health policies issued by the CDC, the FDA and other public health agencies, as well as conducting surveillance into sudden deaths of individuals that received the covid-19 vaccine in Florida, based on autopsy results.

In part, it’s borne out of the escalating distrust of Federal health agencies and the collusion between the Federal government and Big Tech to censor the views of doctors who contradict the scientific narrative.

The committee, led by Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, will include eminent doctors and scientists such as Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Kuldorff, Tracy Beth Høeg, Joseph Fraiman, Christine Stabell Benn, and more.

“People feel like they’re beholden to the CDC,” Ladapo said during a roundtable discussion this week. “We will be issuing recommendations that make sense and are scientifically valid.”

DeSantis also announced he would petition Florida’s Supreme Court to impanel a grand jury to investigate any “crimes and wrongs” regarding covid-19 vaccines.

“I think people want the truth … I think people want accountability,” said DeSantis. “You need to have a thorough investigation into what’s happened with the shots,” he added.

If the court agrees, the grand jury would be given 12 to 18 months to investigate criminal or wrongful activity in Florida relating to the development, promotion, and distribution of vaccines purported to prevent covid-19 infection, symptoms, and transmission.

The Petition in more detail

The 20-page grand jury petition, dated December 13, 2022, provides multiple citations of public health claims, where the accuracy of those claims is now being questioned.

For example, Dr Anthony Fauci unequivocally asserted in May 2021, that vaccinated people were “dead ends” to the virus because the vaccines prevented transmission.

And the White House issued a press briefing prior to Christmas last year, threatening "a winter of severe illness and death" for the unvaccinated.

The petition states that the CDC also promoted the belief that the covid-19 vaccines prevented transmission. In turn, President Joe Biden imposed vaccine mandates on the American people, including healthcare workers and members of the military.

President Biden said it was because "unvaccinated people spread the virus" and "the best way to slow the spread of covid-19 and to prevent infection by the Delta variant or other variants, is to be vaccinated."

In addition, the Federal government, medical associations, and other experts suggested that it was “an ethical or civic duty” to be vaccinated and that failing to do so would be “selfish and harmful” to others.

The petition suggests that much of the understanding about the benefits and harms of covid-19 vaccines was driven by manufacturers issuing their own press releases.

The Chief Executive Officers of Moderna and Pfizer actively promoted impressive efficacy statistics via media statements and used their websites to promote the theory that vaccines could help end the pandemic by achieving "herd immunity."

In January 2021, just as the rollout of the vaccines was underway, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel stated that his company’s vaccine could produce antibodies to provide “protection potentially for a couple of years."

It only took 6 months before breakthrough infections became rampant and people were told they would need boosters to see them through.

In October, the Florida Department of Health issued guidance that healthy children may not benefit from the covid-19 vaccine and recognised that the harms of vaccine-induced myocarditis, particularly for adolescents 16 to 17 years of age, may outweigh the benefits.

The petition suggests that vaccine manufacturers exaggerated the risk of covid-19 in young people, citing the example of when Pfizer’s CEO Anthony Bourla claimed the delta variant posed a "substantial threat" to children.

In addition, vaccine manufacturers downplayed the harms of myocarditis in young people, claiming it was an "extremely" or "very" rare adverse event that was "typically mild.”

This contradicted an analysis by Florida’s own Department of Health, which found an increase in the relative incidence of cardiac-related deaths among males 18-39 years old within 28 days of receiving an mRNA vaccine.

The petition also states that countries like France, Canada and Switzerland have found a connection between covid-19 vaccines and increased rates of myocarditis or pericarditis and points to a German study of autopsies performed on people who died unexpectedly at home within 20 days of receiving an mRNA vaccine, indicating that myocarditis "can be a potentially lethal complication."

One of the concerning aspects, is the excess mortality from heart attacks that rose significantly during the pandemic, especially among individuals ages 25 to 44.

Did the pharmaceutical industry make fair and accurate representations to the public about the benefits and harms of their covid-19 vaccines? Drug companies certainly have a history of deceptive and illegal practices.

DeSantis says Florida law prohibits fraudulent practices, “including the dissemination of false or misleading advertisements of a drug and the use of any representation or suggestion in any advertisement relating to a drug that an application of a drug is effective when it is not.”

In response to DeSantis’ petition for a grand jury, Dr Anthony Fauci appeared befuddled on CNN.

“I don't have a clue of what he's asking for," said Fauci. "Vaccinations administered over the past two years have saved 3.2 million lives, 18 million hospitalizations and approximately $1 trillion in costs. So what’s the problem with vaccines?"

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