Florida’s surgeon general recommends that men under 40 years old not receive the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine due to higher incidences of cardiac-related death.
Dr. Joseph Ladapo’s new guidance, released Friday, was based on an exit analysis of vaccine safety conducted by the state’s Department of Health, his office said.
The self-controlled case series analysis found that men 18-39 years old experienced an 84% increase in the relative incidence of cardiac-related death within 28 days of vaccination. Since the COVID vaccines require multiple doses to achieve protection against the coronavirus, the analysis referenced the most recent inoculation as the start of the 28-day period.
“With a high level of global immunity to COVID-19, the benefit of vaccination is likely outweighed by this abnormally high risk of cardiac-related death among men in this age group,” the guidance says. “Non-mRNA vaccines were not found to have these increased risks.”
Men who are 60 and older were also found to have a 10% increased risk of cardiac-related death within the 28-day period post-inoculation.
Dr. Lapado recommended that men with pre-existing conditions, such as myocarditis and pericarditis, should exercise caution when choosing to get vaccinated.
Florida residents who are 18 or older and who died within 25-weeks of the original vaccine rollout in December 2020 were included.
People who were excluded were those who had a documented COVID infection, those who experienced a COVID associated death, those who received a booster and those who received their last COVID-19 vaccination after Dec. 8, 2021 — in order to ensure there could be a 25-week follow up post-inoculation.
Dr. Ladapo recommended in March that healthy children between 5 and 17 years old don’t need to receive the COVID vaccine.