Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, released a study on Friday that focused on cardiac-related deaths in people 18 years and older following a 25-week period after an individual took the final COVID vaccine shot. The findings were not so good for young men 18-39.

This demographic was at an 84% increased chance of death via cardiac-related incidents post-vaccination. This information, though unsettling, had long been suspected by the general public. Story after story kept emerging about the COVID vaccine and the link between it and heart issues like myocarditis.

There is, of course, skepticism amongst other health professionals who have looked at Dr. Ladapo’s findings and worry that it is reckless to present them to the public. According to NBC’s West Palm Beach affiliate, doctors like Ethan Chapin and Jessica Steier mention that this study has red flags. Their biggest complaints about the study are its small sample size and the fact that the study excluded patients who had a COVID infection or died from COVID. This last point is an interesting one. To quote Dr. Steier directly: “The fact that they kind of glossed over that in this study, that could have been a contributing factor, and the author should have looked at medical records to ascertain COVID status because we know that COVID itself, the virus itself, can lead to those outcomes. That’s a major methodological flaw.”

Twitter briefly blocked Dr. Ladapo’s post with the study’s findings. Twitter had this to say as justification: “Our current misleading information policies cover: synthetic and manipulated media, COVID-19, and civic integrity. If we determine a Tweet contains misleading or disputed information per our policies that could lead to harm, we may add a label to the content to provide context and additional information.”

The tweet was restored on Sunday.

For his part, Dr. Ladapo was happy to have started this conversation amongst his colleagues, saying: “I love the discussion that we’ve stimulated. Isn’t it great when we discuss science transparently instead of trying to cancel one another? I’m going to respond to the more substantive critiques.” Then he proceeded to address the critiques on his social media thread.

Dr. Ladapo represents many who have been critical of the largely untested mRNA vaccine. Hindsight being 20-20, the vaccine should have been administered to the elderly and the immunocompromised primarily. The young and healthy should not have been strong-armed into getting it. The vaccine became a politicized weapon, a virtue signal, and a method to weed out the non-compliant in the ranks of society.

It’s still being used in that capacity to this day. As recently as October 6, NBC News reported that COVID deaths were higher among Republicans than Democrats. The states used to conduct this study — sponsored by Yale School of Public Health and Tobin Center for Economic Policy at Yale University — were Ohio and Florida. The article concluded that this must be due to vaccine hesitancy and a more prevalent refusal to mask and social distance in red states. It comes to that conclusion because after the vaccine requirement, deaths went down.

But if you look at the chart, the downward trend actually coincides with the increase in less dangerous variants. Furthermore, Florida’s population tends to be an older demographic — a risk factor that would skew the data.

More studies will continue to emerge about the mRNA vaccine, and perhaps the further we are from the necessity of the vaccine being used as a political weapon, the more accurate and honest the science will become.