The Florida Supreme Court empaneled a statewide grand jury to investigate COVID-19 vaccine-related criminal activity over a year ago. The jury's first report states that the investigation is ongoing and has reached no conclusion. The report criticizes lockdowns, mask mandates, and social distancing guidelines, contradicting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) guidance.
The jury's conclusions on masks, lockdowns, and social distancing guidelines contradict the CDC's recommendations. The report states that jurisdictions that enforced lockdowns had higher overall excess mortality, and mask mandates, social distancing guidelines, and shutdowns were not administered based on the best available scientific data.
Kenneth Goodman, founder and director of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy, criticized the report for raising questions about which professionals the grand jury spoke with and how those professionals were vetted. The report does not disclose the names of the doctors, scientists, and professors with a broad range of viewpoints that the grand jury consulted.
Since January 1, 2020, more than 82,000 Floridians have died from COVID-19. About 900 people have died from the virus in the past three months. About 17.8 million people in Florida have received at least one dose of the vaccine, about 83% of the state’s population. Only about 12% of the state’s population has received an updated booster dose.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo have voiced skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccines. Ladapo advised people under the age of 65 against getting the new booster when it was approved and called for a halt in using the vaccines, discussing a refuted theory that they may be “delivering contaminant DNA into human cells.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refuted Ladapo's concerns about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. A University of South Florida/Florida Atlantic University public survey last August showed that notable numbers of Floridians incorrectly believe that vaccines can cause DNA alterations or believe a conspiracy theory that they contain microchips.
DeSantis has fought against federal mandates and portrayed Florida’s policies as “pro-freedom.” The report issued Friday emphasized that the grand jury is apolitical, diverse in ethnicity, gender and politics and has “no specific agenda with respect to these issues.” However, transparency questions remain about those who did and did not appear before the grand jury.
The grand jury's primary legal adviser is Statewide Prosecutor Nicholas B. Cox, who was appointed by Attorney General Ashley Moody and who has been overseeing the voter fraud cases moving through the courts since DeSantis announced the arrests of some 20 people in August 2022 for allegedly voting illegally. The majority of registered voters in all but one of the 14 counties that make up those circuits are registered Republicans, according to Division of Elections records.
Dr. Leslie Beitsch, courtesy faculty professor at Florida State University’s College of Medicine, said the report raises transparency questions about those who did and did not appear before the grand jury and called it “far from an unbiased effort.” Beitsch said it appears to him that the report was written by “someone who has a great deal of biostatistics and epidemiology knowledge and beyond the bachelor’s level.” He said the data discussed in the report was chosen to best suit their position. There is no expert consensus on the conclusions drawn in the report.
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