47 defendants added to lawsuit as Florida surgeon general’s tweet blocked

According to a press release from Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, he and Missouri Attorney Eric Schmitt have added 47 defendants to a lawsuit accusing the federal government of colluding with social media companies to censor freedom of speech. According to the press release, the additional defendants include “top officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the White House, and others.”

Names listed on the press release include:

• Top White House officials Andy Slavitt and Rob Flaherty.
• White House Counsel Dana Remus.
• FBI Section Chief for the Foreign Influence Task Force Laura Dehmlow.
• CDC Deputy Communications Director Kate Galatas.

“Throughout this case, we have uncovered a disturbing amount of collusion between Big Tech and Big Government,” Attorney General Landry said in a statement. “This egregious attack on our First Amendment will be met with an equally full-hearted defense of the rights of the American people.”

The added defendants to the social media lawsuit were announced just a day after Twitter restored a previously-blocked tweet from Florida Surgeon General Joe Lapado. The tweet promoted an analysis claiming a high incidence of cardiac-related deaths among men who take the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

“This analysis found that there is an 84% increase in the relative incidence of cardiac-related death among males 18-39 years old within 28 days following mRNA vaccination,” the Florida Department of Health said in a bulletin last Friday. “With a high level of global immunity to COVID-19, the benefit of vaccination is likely outweighed by this abnormally high risk of cardiac-related death among men in this age group.”

With the tweet came new guidance from Lapado for Floridians. He advised against COVID-19 mRNA vaccines for men aged 18-39.

The guidance, as well as the analysis, was questioned by other medical experts in the state. They argue the analysis relies on imperfect data and does little to explain its methodology.

“It’s not a complete picture,” Jason Salemi, an epidemiologist at the University of South Florida, told the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s taking one part of it and using that seemingly in isolation to make a recommendation.”

Politico contributed to this report.