Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo called a press conference in Tampa on Thursday to urge more study of people who say they were injured by COVID-19 vaccines.
Ladapo also praised the federal government's decision in May, announced by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to no longer recommend COVID-19 mRNA vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women, and said he'd like to see an even broader recommendation.
"I hope that we get there because these products, they should not be used in any human beings," Ladapo said.
"Increasingly, it appears that the folks who have received these vaccines, particularly when they've been boosted, and particularly when they continue to be boosted, appear to actually be at highest risk of becoming seriously ill from the virus," he added.
But major pediatrics and women's health groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetrician-Gynecologists continue to recommend COVID-19 vaccines to pregnant women and children over 6 months of age.
"Honestly, we don't know where his data are coming from. And it's not going to deter us from continuing to recommend the vaccines," said Dr. Rana Alissa of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"We are not going to just throw decades of science and research and information just because of one person or a group of people that decided to take over and just continue to spread conspiracy theories about the danger," she said.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) also still recommends the COVID-19 vaccine, saying that immunization is especially important during pregnancy, when the risks of severe outcomes are higher. Vaccination can also convey protection to infants after birth.
ACOG plans to publish updated recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine, along with other maternal immunizations, at the end of the summer, according to a statement.
ACOG said it is working in collaboration with the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy’s Vaccine Integrity Project (VIP) to make "unbiased, evidence-based guidance about maternal vaccination for respiratory conditions."
“We have made the commitment to join the VIP because we want to ensure that absent the historically robust government-led annual review of data and subsequent evidence-based recommendations, our patients and our colleagues across the health care system are able to make maternal immunization decisions that are founded on science,” said Dr. Steven Fleischman, president of ACOG.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians and the American Public Health Association are suing Health Secretary Kennedy over recent changes to federal COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.
Their complaint was filed in July in federal district court and alleges the move is part of a larger effort to undermine public trust in vaccines.
