Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is calling for a grand jury investigation into alleged “crimes and wrongdoing” related to COVID-19 vaccines and setting up Florida’s own Public Health Integrity Committee.
The governor’s office announced what it called “aggressive action” Tuesday after DeSantis held a roundtable discussion with physicians, researchers and victims “of adverse events from mRNA vaccines.”
“The federal government, medical associations, and other experts have created an expectation that receiving a COVID-19 vaccine is an ethical or civic duty and that choosing not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is selfish and harmful to others,” DeSantis’s petition for the grand jury investigation reads.
The petition also alleges that it is “impossible to imagine that so many influential individuals came to this view on their own” and that the pro-vaccine individuals and companies “created these perceptions for financial gain.”
DeSantis said he’s further creating the Public Health Integrity Committee because he distrusts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Our CDC, at this point, anything they put out, you just assume, at this point, that it’s not worth the paper that it’s printed on. It’s not serving a useful function. It’s really serving to advance narratives,” DeSantis said at the roundtable Tuesday.
The new Florida committee is set to examine federal recommendations for public health under the direction of the state’s surgeon general in order to “ensure that Florida’s public health policies are tailored for Florida’s communities,” the governor’s office said.
And under the governor’s new actions, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo will also conduct “autopsy surveillance” by investigating what the office called “sudden deaths” in individuals who received the COVID-19 vaccine.