Casey DeSantis, Joe Ladapo talk vaccines, medical freedom

First Lady Casey DeSantis and Surgeon General Joe Ladapo talked vaccines Friday, as Florida continues to embrace the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) agenda in the waning months of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ term, and with medical freedom legislation currently in the legislative process that would give parents more latitude in mandated vaccines.

Casey DeSantis, a mother of three, specifically lamented families losing access to their children’s pediatricians because the children are unvaccinated.

“Parents deserve accurate, complete information about the benefits, the risks, implications, the data, or the lack thereof when it comes to vaccines. They should be empowered to make informed decisions about their children’s well being without fear of discrimination,” Florida’s First Lady said. “No parents should lose their pediatrician, no family should ever be dropped from care, and no parents should be judged or excluded because of their vaccine choices. And unfortunately, that is what we are seeing across the state of Florida.”

And Ladapo discussed his evolution from a trained establishment doctor to someone willing to question paradigm, saying people want “more information” not “more coercion,” and “complete information” about what they put in their bodies.

He blasted the candy industry for pushing back against state findings that Nerds and other candies had a “high level of arsenic.”

He also condemned the American Academy of Pediatrics for their vaccination policies.

“It is their policy position now to encourage and sanction discrimination of parents who choose not to follow the vaccine schedule. It gets published, it’s totally out there now. In that setting, they are going in a direction that is completely opposite the direction of the people,” he said, adding that it’s “unethical” to compel vaccinations.

Mary Beth Tyson, the wife of pollster Ryan Tyson, described vaccinating her child at 18-months-old, and noticing he wasn’t right days later, leading to a case of the “Terrible Twos” that included outbursts and seizures.

The Institute for Vaccine Safety finds that in vaccines “that cause fever in young children” there is “a small inherent risk of causing febrile seizures,” with an estimated rate of 26.4 children per 1,000 who receive the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and 84.6 children out of 1,000 who receive the measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (chickenpox) (MMRV) vaccine experiencing seizures within 7-10 days after administration. But “considering the benign nature of simple febrile seizures” and “the rarity of vaccine-induced febrile seizures,” paired with the “relative frequency of fever-related to natural infection” many vaccines protect against, the group finds that “the benefits of vaccination greatly outweigh the minimal risk of vaccine complications.”

Still, more vaccines brought more adverse consequences, Tyson said, leading to the Tyson family to find a pediatrician out of town who they can pay out of pocket.

“Modern day toxins” create new challenges, she said, especially given she ordered a study of her child’s DNA and the genetic test made it clear what her son could and couldn’t handle.

Twelve years later, her child is still healing from those early life vaccines, Tyson said.

After she and some other mothers told their stories, Ladapo empathized with the tough decisions they had to make in “coercive” settings.

“Nothing good ultimately will come from coercion,” he said.

Casey DeSantis said she knew mothers like her wanted to make good decisions, and they should be “empowered with the truth” to have “informed consent” and not face discrimination from doctors.