Florida COVID grand jury releases findings, says Biden administration stonewalled efforts

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The 22nd Statewide Grand Jury on Friday released its first interim report a little more than a year after Gov. Ron DeSantis petitioned its formation.

While the governor was primely targeting COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers and their advertisement of vaccine efficacy, the first report drew conclusions mainly on lockdowns and masks, and the grand jury said the issue of the vaccines was far more nuanced and could not be answered in a “vacuum.”

It also said that the Biden administration did not cooperate with efforts to obtain testimony from officials representing agencies like the CDC, FDA and U.S. Army.

Perhaps the grand jury’s biggest obstacle in seeking out DeSantis’ goal of holding vaccine manufacturers accountable, it does not have strong legal authority to compel testimony out of relevant parties.

“These agencies have elected not to provide representatives to testify before this body, and federal law prohibits us from compelling their cooperation,” it said.

The jury added that some “prospective witnesses” raised concerns about whether the grand jury will be “fair,” and said that prospective witnesses would choose not to testify because of “potential professional or personal consequences.”

The grand jury said that it cannot determine the “truth” of statements regarding the “safety” and “effectiveness” of the vaccines without context of the risk of COVID-19.

As a result of that, in its first report, the grand jury focused on the risk of the disease and “other modalities” to contain it, such as lockdowns and masks.

“The COVID-19 vaccines—their approval, their rollout, and their administration—were a significant part of a broad societal response to a true national emergency: A novel disease that is estimated to have killed almost a hundred thousand Floridians and millions worldwide,” the report said.

“There are still many months and much more testimony and evidence to come before our work will be finished,” it said.

The jury had issued findings on the use of lockdowns and masks to contain COVID-19.

“We have never had sound evidence of their effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the form of reliable RCTs that demonstrated statistically significant benefits,” it said.

The grand jury scathed health agencies and the federal government for “fail[ing]” to accurately inform Americans on masks.

“[They hid to] avoid the potential embarrassment of the public health advice they championed being invalidated by evidence,” it said.

The jury found the public was also mislead on “social distancing.” During the pandemic, many businesses and Americans were told to space people six feet apart.

“It is not nearly as important how far away people are from one another as it is whether they are in an interior or exterior environment and whether that environment is subject to adequate airflow,” the jury said.

On lockdowns, the grand jury found that their usage only “modest[ly]” benefitted the “affluent” who could afford to stay home at the expense of children and Americans through age 40.

A poor reflection on the American health authorities, the grand jury concluded by stating these other interventions “were not administered based on the best available scientific data.”

“Often this research was ignored by institutional policymakers,” it said. “Occasionally it was even attacked. It is a sad state of affairs when something as simple as following the science constitutes an act of heresy, but here we are.”