Florida Surgeon General Warns Against Using mRNA COVID Vaccines Over Possible Cancer Risk

A recent study found that single doses of COVID-19 mRNA shots have ‘billions to hundreds of billions’ of DNA particles, far exceeding FDA and WHO guidelines.

Florida Surgeon Gen. Dr. Joseph Ladapo speaks during an event in a file photograph. Chris O'Meara/AP Photo

Florida’s Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, is warning against any use of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, citing cancer concerns.

Dr. Ladapo was raising concerns following a Canadian study that found “billions to hundreds of billions” of DNA molecules per dose, exceeding guidelines set forth by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

He sent a letter on Dec. 6—that cited the Canadian study—to the FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Mandy Cohen, outlining his concerns about the high presence of DNA molecules in the mRNA vaccines alongside lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) used to deliver medicine into human cells.

If LNPs are so effective at administering the vaccine’s medicine into human cells, Dr. Ladapo says he fears they will deliver the contaminant DNA molecules simultaneously.

He cites a 2007 guidance report from the FDA on the regulatory limits for DNA in vaccines, which indicated risks of affecting the human genes that transform healthy cells into cancerous cells.

The report also discusses the risk of how this integration of DNA in vaccines can lead to issues with the heart, brain, blood, kidney, liver, bone marrow, lung, ovaries, and testes, draining lymph nodes, spleen, and the vaccine’s administration and injection site.

“DNA integration poses a unique and elevated risk to human health, and to the integrity of the human genome, including the risk that DNA integrated into sperm or egg, gametes could be passed onto offspring of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine recipients.

“If the risks of DNA integration have not been assessed for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, these vaccines are not appropriate for use in human beings,” Dr. Ladapo said in a news release.

He is not calling for a widespread rejection of all vaccines and instead urges health care providers to prioritize non-mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and treatment while assessing research into overall vaccine risks.

Dr. Ladapo was in hot water in April 2023 after a public records request discovered edits he made to a state-commissioned survey on mRNA vaccines, garnering accusations of “exaggerating” the data to fit his position against giving COVID-19 vaccines to “healthy” children and adults of certain ages.

He defended the move as a scientific “revision” and felt justified in removing a certain data analysis from the original survey.

But others have raised concerns with the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines as well, including Dr. Eduardo Balbona, an internal medicine doctor from Jacksonville, Florida.

Dr. Balbona has been practicing for three decades and advocates for evidence-based medicine that emphasizes preventing disease and maintaining health with “education and a deliberative proactive approach to lifelong care.”

After receiving single or repeat doses of the mRNA vaccines, some of his patients experienced a host of different symptoms and felt “ill immediately afterward.”

In “some people, it takes a couple of weeks. So there [are] different patterns of injury. And I would say [for] some people, it’s almost an anaphylactic reaction.

“They have the vaccine, and from that moment on, they’re just not well. Often ... they lose their blood pressure, or they have a crazy blood pressure. It either drops to 70 or goes to 200,” Dr. Balbona told The Epoch Times.

Several of his patients also developed posterior orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) which, according to the Cleveland Clinic, is a condition that “causes your heart to beat faster than normal when you transition from sitting or lying down to standing up.”

Dr. Eduardo Balbona served as a physician at the U.S. Capitol, caring for senators, congressmen, and Supreme Court Justices. Courtesy of Eduardo Balbona

POTS is not easy to diagnose because several of its symptoms, including dizziness, fainting, chest pain, headaches, and heart palpitations, can occur over time despite resulting from a common cause.

There is currently no cure for POTS, although exercise, physical activity, and a cardiac rehabilitation program can be used as treatment.

Dr. Balbona also saw patients with increased blood pressure and others who had developed a hypercoagulable state, which is when the blood coagulates excessively in the absence of bleeding, according to the National Institutes of Health.

He was also concerned by the number of men in their late teens, 20s, and 30s who developed pulmonary embolisms without genetic predispositions or pre-existing health issues that would cause them.

A pulmonary embolism occurs when a fragment, most likely a blood clot, gets stuck in a lung artery and blocks the flow of blood, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Other patients developed myocarditis and pericarditis directly after receiving the vaccine, Dr. Balbona said.

According to the CDC, “myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis is inflammation of the outer lining of the heart.”

The symptoms of myocarditis and pericarditis are chest pain, shortness of breath, and “feelings of having a fast beating, fluttering, or pounding heart.”

The CDC admits that some patients developed these conditions after receiving the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines but that cases are “rare” and that many heal on their own.

However, since the symptoms can mimic anxiety reactions, some patients might be unaware they have either myocarditis or pericarditis, making data collection difficult.

Dr. Balbona spoke with patients who went to hospitals with these symptoms and were turned away by nurses and doctors who told them the issues were psychological, possibly assuming the patients were anxious or experiencing acute panic attacks.

He also believes some who received the vaccines were given “blanks” instead of shots with active medicine inside. Dr. Balbona said he tested several patients after they received their shots, and they lacked COVID-19 antibodies, which should be present in the blood after vaccination.

Dr. Balbona believes some patients might have been vaccinated with just saline solution as a result of poor storage and handling of the vaccines themselves, which required cold storage at all times to prevent the destruction of the medicine inside.

Patients often tell him they’re worried about falling ill because of having had one or many COVID-19 vaccines.

“So if you had the vaccine several years ago, and you feel fine, and you have no problems, you’re likely okay,” he added.

Dr. Balbona believes the research will eventually catch up with what he and other physicians are seeing while treating their patients.

“At some point—I think that point is long past due—these vaccines will be withdrawn from the market. They’re not safe. They’re harming people. They may be harming people in ways that are durable. The recent DNA contamination is very concerning for increasing risk of cancer,” he said.

However, despite the alleged cancer risks of using mRNA inside COVID-19 vaccines, he said, “the underlying technology is something that’s actually very remarkable.

“mRNA technology was misused in the COVID pandemic,” he said. “It should not be given indiscriminately.

“It’s gene therapy; there’s no question of that. And it has the ability to do some remarkable things in terms of good in the right situation. If you can turn on and off a gene or a protein in a patient who has a very serious illness, that’s fine.

“That may be a fabulous tool in the future, but you have to disclose the risks and the benefits.”

Nanette Holt contributed to this report.