ORLANDO, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday granted Gov. Ron DeSantis’ call for a grand jury to investigate COVID-19 vaccines, despite overwhelming scientific consensus they have saved millions of lives in the U.S. and across the world.
The court issued an order stating the grand jury can investigate “pharmaceutical manufacturers (and their executive officers) and other medical associations or organizations” involved in almost any way with the use of “vaccines purported to prevent COVID-19 infection, symptoms, and transmission.”
The grand jury can also look into “other criminal activity or wrongdoing that the statewide grand jury uncovers during the course of the investigation” or anything that’s part of an “organized criminal conspiracy.”
The body will be empaneled for 12 months and will be presided over by Circuit Court Judge Ronald Ficarrotta of Tampa.
“It is preposterous,” said Kenneth Goodman, director of the Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy at the University of Miami.
“The fact of the matter is, in the United States, a million people died (of COVID-19),” Goodman said. “Around the world, it’s more. The creation of these vaccines, warts and all, has saved millions and millions of lives. ... The idea that there was malign intent, when it comes to what the governor is interested in, is a total knee slapper.”
DeSantis has increasingly turned anti-COVID vaccine despite heavily promoting them when they were first made available in December 2020. He said last week that he wanted a grand jury to help bring “legal accountability for those who committed misconduct.”
At the same event, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo also announced the state will begin studying the incidence of myocarditis deaths within a few weeks of COVID-19 vaccination.
Ladapo’s last venture into that subject, an analysis on COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis in young men, was criticized by federal officials as poorly designed and unscientific. It was also derided as lacking transparency and not peer-reviewed.
DeSantis had also announced the creation of a panel, called the Public Health Integrity Committee, designed to question the recommendations of the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
The panel will feature professors, researchers and doctors who all have vocally opposed the scientific consensus regarding COVID-19 vaccines.
Opponents say the move is DeSantis’ latest political stunt designed to outflank former President Donald Trump on the right as both seek the White House in 2024. Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed” brought the vaccines from development to usage in record time.
“There are no more checks and balances in Florida government at this point,” said state Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando. “The governor, the Legislature and the judiciary all operate under whatever DeSantis wants. And it’s just another example of institutions being weaponized to pursue the governor’s political ambitions.”
Goodman added that the vaccine issue has become “politically twisted.”
“We depend on the engines of state not to be used for political purposes, to wage culture wars, or to undermine the ways scientific evidence is marshaled for the health of populations,” Goodman said. “... This is using the powers of office to run for another office. And it should be dispiriting to anybody who loves our beautiful country.”
