Are COVID vaccines fit for human use?

This week, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo has claimed mRNA COVID vaccines are unsafe and “not fit for human use.” Asserting that almost everyone knows someone who was hurt by them, he is telling people to stop getting the shots.

Some COVID vaccines work by using mRNA, a temporary recipe card, to teach your cells how to make a harmless piece of the virus’s spike protein. COVID vaccines are neither gene therapy nor experimental. They were thoroughly tested in large studies and do not change your DNA, as mRNA cannot enter the nucleus of the cell, but instead teach your body how to fight the virus without giving you the illness.

Clinical trials and studies show that these vaccines are safe for children, with serious side effects being extremely rare. However, COVID itself can cause long-term health problems. These complications include the risk of hospitalization and severe outcomes like multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). While hospitalization rates for COVID are generally lower in children than adults, they are still significant, particularly among young children and infants who have not yet developed robust immune defenses.

Stories like Ethan’s remind us why it’s worth protecting children against the worst effects of COVID.

Stopping mRNA vaccines entirely would leave people at risk for serious illness and death, as these vaccines have already saved millions of lives worldwide. Vaccines are like a safe and temporary training session for your immune system, teaching it how to protect you better in the future.

Ladapo, on the other hand, is accused of committing scientific fraud and manipulating data to claim that the mRNA vaccines increase the risk of cardiac death.