>>This week on NewsNight, the FDA approves a new COVID vaccination, but the DeSantis administration advises people under 65 against taking the shot.

Plus, transgender students react to the process of implementing Florida's recent bathroom law.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort, and welcome to NewsNight where we take an in-depth look at the top stories and issues in central Florida and how they affect all of us.

First tonight, the new COVID 19 vaccination now available to the public.

The CDC recommends the shot for everyone six months or older.

But Florida's surgeon general has recommended against people under 65 getting the new vaccine formulation, which targets the prominent variants currently circulating.

Dr. Joseph Ladapo made the announcement in a recent virtual event with Governor DeSantis and several doctors.

>>What I have a directed our department to do is to provide guidance that really recommends and advises against the use of these mRNA COVID 19 vaccines for anyone under 65.

My judgment is that it's not a good decision for young people, for people who are not at high risk at this point in the pandemic.

>>Dr.

Joseph Ladapo.

Well, the state says there's insufficient data to support the CDC recommendation.

The Florida Surgeon General points to several studies in questioning the vaccine's effectiveness and safety.

I talked this week with the Orlando Sentinel health reporter Caroline Catherman who's been covering the issue.

>>Sometimes when he references studies, if you go and look at the study, you can see that the authors conclude that what they've found does not invalidate the safety of the vaccine.

You know, the majority of scientists are still going to tell you that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.

And in fact, Surgeon General Ladapo's own own research that he put out last year found that the risk of, you know, death from COVID 19 is higher than the risk of death from vaccination.

>>Caroline, do experts in the medical field see that as cherry picking evidence?

>>I have heard that criticism a lot, that he's cherry picking evidence.

And of course, there are some people in the medical field that agree with him.

I think that I know that that is the minority.

But he has been bringing them out more and more recently.

>>Dr.

Ladapo has talked a lot about a lack of data.

Is that valid from your reporting?

>>There actually have been human clinical trials of this variation of the vaccine.

Moderna did a clinical trial in humans.

Pfizer did not.

They, I think, are in pre-clinical trial.

I think they have only tested it on rodents.

But the thing is, as I understand it, you know, the human clinical trials are great.

They've shown that it can be administered safely and effectively.

That is what the CDC's expert panel ruled, looking at the data.

But we also have to remember that billions of doses of this vaccine using this technology made by these companies have been given across the globe.

So we have years of safety data at this point.

You know, we have closely tracked adverse effects from the vaccine.

And in fact, the reason we know that myocarditis does in very rare cases occur is because we're so closely tracking adverse reactions.

>>Caroline Catherman from the Orlando Sentinel.

Well, let's bring in our panel now to break it all down.

Joining us in the studio this week, Brendan Byrne, assistant news director and host of Are We There Yet?

On 90.7 WMFE News.

Thanks so much for being here Brendan.

I appreciate it.

And general assignment reporter at WFTV Channel 9, Chantelle Navarro coming back to the show.

Thanks for being here.

Chantelle.

>>Thanks for having me.

>>Really appreciate your time today, guys.

Before we talk about this, let me play a portion of an interview I did this week with Dr. Vincent Hsu.

He's the infection control officer for Adventhealth.

>>If you want to minimize your risk of getting you know, of getting severely ill, vaccination is really a great choice.

Yes, there are adverse events that occur, but I would also say that some of the concerns that the public have are, you know, need to be also explained.

We have had more data, more safety data than ever with the safety of these vaccines.

Yes, adverse events occur.

Yes, side effects occur.

But don't forget the effects of COVID 19.

You have a much greater risk of injury to your heart.

A myocarditis from COVID 19 itself than you have from the vaccine.

A much greater risk.

So all of these things have to be considered the risks and the benefits.

And of course, if you have any questions, please talk to your health care provider.

>>You can find much more from my interview with Dr. Hsu on our website, wucf.org/newsnight along the bottom of your screen.

Chantelle, let me come to you first on this one.

WFTV has consistently covered sort of the pandemic and the rollout of vaccines.

I mean, how does the data look at this point, sort of both in terms of hospitalizations and vaccine uptake that we were just talking about?

You know, when it comes to vaccine, of course, we had that huge boost, at first of so many people getting the vaccine.

It was like 70% of people in Orange and Osceola County.

And then when it came to like the boosters and everything, it was about nine, 10%.

So not many people are getting the vaccine as much anywhere right now.

And right now here in Florida, where we're leading when it comes to our hospitalization rates, we're at 11% right now.

So we are... >>It's interesting.

And we have one of the lower uptakes on the on the boosters, as you just mentioned, Brendan.

I mean, Florida's former surgeon general, Scott Rivkees, has had a few things to say about his successors advice.

What's his point?

>>He's essentially saying the state is wrong and the new surgeon general is wrong for for pushing this anti-vaccine rhetoric.

He says they're safe, they prevent COVID 19.

And if DeSantis and and Ladapo are going to come out with this anti-vaccine message, well, they need to bring the receipts to show them that this actually is detrimental to the health.

And he feels like they happen at this point.

>>So much more sort of in line with what we've been hearing from the CDC and federal regulators.

>>Exactly.

And hes also saying that we're starting to feel that message.

As Chantelle was mentioning, those vaccine rates are down, and that's because of the way that the state is talking about.

>>Yeah, it's interesting, Chantelle.

I mean, is that broadly the criticism that we're hearing from those that disagree with the Florida Department of Health's guidance?

>>Yeah, you know, it's like anybody who is agreeing with the state right now is saying, I don't want to be a guinea pig, this and that.

But at the same time, it's like, well, health leaders are then saying, do you want to be a guinea pig or you want to be a corpse?

Because there are obviously, like those risks when it comes to to not taking those precautions.

And they're you know, they're warning people this could be dangerous.

>>And we heard from Dr. Hsu sort of saying, well, you know, we think that the risks of the vaccine are far smaller than the-- >>Exactly.

>>The risks of having COVID 19.

I mean, Brendan, this isn't the first time, though, right, that Dr. Ladapo has called a controversy.

>>That's right.

Earlier this year, Politico reported that Ladapo edited a state funded research study on the health risks of the vaccine.

Essentially that the study said there weren't health risks to young people, to young males.

And he line edited to say that it was and that was a lot of controversy and a profile by the Orlando Sentinel and the Sun Sentinel showed that this kind of this this COVID crusade that he's going on has alienated a lot of his colleagues.

He's not meeting the what he needs to do as it comes to research and teaching at the University of Florida.

And essentially, his colleagues are saying this is not what you do as a public health official, and it's really, really alienated him from the community.

>>And of course, Dr. Ladapo would say, I guess he's sort of a vanguard in pushing for more data as he sees there's a lack of data on these vaccine.

Chantelle, I mean, do the polls demonstrate, do we think how the public views vaccinations and maybe how susceptible people are to misinformation when they hear it?

>>Well, there is still a lot of just misinformation in general when it comes to COVID.

And there has been polls that have been showing people still think that the vaccine is far more dangerous than it actually is.

I think people are still thinking that you could.

There was one poll, it's a 20% of people believe that more people were dying from the vaccine than dying from the virus itself, which obviously is not true.

You know, so there's a lot of that still happening.

>>And that, of course, can take hold a lot with social media and things like that.

Brendan, just finally on this one, I mean, the governor's re-upping his message on COVID in the in the GOP presidential primary as cases rise.

WMFE's covered how he's talking about the potential for future COVID restrictions, what's he been saying on the campaign trail?

>>He's been saying that this is not going to be a lockdown state.

He's been saying that, you know, vaccine mandates won't be in effect for K-12 public or charter schools.

He's saying there will be no mask mandates at all.

And as you mentioned, this is becoming a political talking point in in his campaign for president.

And, you know, former President Trump has been fueling a bit of that as well by kind of ribbing him on Florida's response early on, which is garnering his response back.

>>Yeah, it's interesting to see that that message has been difficult to land over recent months, is that as the pandemic has sort of slipped to the back of many people's minds.

You can find my full length interviews with Dr. Vincent Hsu from Adventhealth and Caroline Catherman from the Orlando Sentinel on our website.

wucf.org/newsnight.

Meanwhile, be sure to join the conversation on social media were at WUCFTV on Facebook, X, formerly known as Twitter and Instagram.

All right.

Next tonight, the process of implementing Florida's so-called Safety in Private Spaces Act, which came into force in July.

The law requires people to use restrooms corresponding to their sex assigned at birth or unisex restrooms in publicly owned facilities such as colleges and universities, government buildings, correctional facilities and schools.

The Florida Board of Governors, which sets rules for 12 state universities in Florida, met this week to take up the issue and move ahead with the process of approving new rules based on the law.

The draft regulation will be debated and voted on in November.

Last month, the Board of Education approved its set of rules that expanded the requirements to student housing and mandated termination for an employee with two violations.

The Florida Board of Governors passes rules that apply to institutions like the University of Florida, Florida State and the University of Central Florida.

The Board of Education approves rules for the 28 state colleges.

Supporters of Florida's Safety and Private Spaces Act say it helps protect the safety of students.

But critics of the law say it targets transgender people.

>>The only thing this is doing is making it more dangerous for trans people to exist in public spaces.

And it's just perpetuating the false belief that trans people are inherently dangerous.

>>Emily Merced Rodriguez is a transgender woman and a student at UCF.

She hopes more gender neutral restrooms will now be made available.

She dismisses arguments that the law is about public safety.

>>It's just an excuse, they say, to hide their hatred because they don't when when a lot of like people who pass these laws are obviously targeting trans people or other LGBTQ people.

It's not borne out of safety or borne out of the need to protect anybody.

It's hatred.

Because if if somebody were going to do something bad, a law like this wouldn't keep them from doing it.

>>What is a trans personnel person supposed to do?

>>The rules drawn up by the boards overseeing colleges and separately universities say institutions have until April 1st to update codes of conduct and disciplinary procedures and certify compliance.

The Board of Governors rules for universities taken up this week differ from the rules already approved for colleges in a number of ways, including on the penalty structure for staff and faculty.

Courtney McLain, the chair of the College Republicans at UCF, says she supports bathrooms based on gender assigned at birth, but she says she's unclear how it will be enforced.

>>I think that the way that Governor DeSantis is going is primarily for safety, and I think he's doing the best that he can to promote safety in the state of Florida.

And I think that that's what it really has to do with is like making sure that you're going to the restroom of your assigned gender.

I think that's kind of the safest way to go about things.

But I think there's also like like there's so many gray areas.

Maybe somebody is like transitioning and they already look like they're there.

The gender of the restroom, if they're going into it.

I don't think that we should have people standing outside of the restroom being like, Are you this particular gender or are you like, not this gender?

Like, we shouldn't focus on things to that extent.

Like, honestly, like I feel like everyone can kind of patrol themselves at the end of the day.

So, like I do see where Governor DeSantis is going with this law because it can make like I feel like more people feel comfortable, especially with I feel like so many of the things that are being pushed in schools right now.

But also I kind of think we can patrol this ourselves to an extent.

>>The Florida Board of Governors is expected to vote on its rule at a meeting in November.

NewsNight intern Mia Striegel helped compile that report.

We should note WUCF is licensed to the University of Central Florida.

Chantelle, let me come to you first on this one.

We heard from one transgender student in our piece there.

But has there been a broad pushback from the LGBT community on the bathrooms issue?

>>Absolutely.

A lot of people, you know, in that population are kind of calling this a witch hunt from the state and from from these people who are who are making these rules because they feel like they actually just feel like their rights are being taken away kind of in a similar fashion that a lot of migrants feel like their rights are being taken away right now by the administration.

So, you know, it's kind of causing a mass exodus at that point as well from people.

>>And that's one of the stories you've been covering.

Of course, a lot.

I mean, Brendan, that the board of Governors that sort of sets policies for the higher education institutions on the university side sort of began, I guess, the rulemaking process this week.

I mean, what's the the process there for for state universities when it comes to rulemaking?

What happens next?

>>Yeah, so so as you mentioned in the package there, they've they've got this rule that would make it a firable offense.

They voted on on the rule and now it moves into what they call it, a draft.

So they're actually drafting the rule.

There'll be public comment and then eventually voting later this year I believe in November, on making it a rule because by law it has to be in place by April of next year.

>>And of course, we've been talking about higher education here.

But K-through-12 schools, both public and now private, right, have new rules from the Board of Education that they've got to enforce.

What are those look like at that level?

>>Right.

So much like the University Rules Board of Education passed a rule that restricts transgender students, bathroom access bars, teachers from asking for pronouns or using pronouns that do not correspond to their sex at birth, and also for presenting their pronouns or sharing their pronouns as a teacher or instructor if it does not match their their sex at birth as well.

And then another rule that came in bans adult live performances, which was seem to be intended for drag performances.

But some advocates say that this could have some some really big effects when it comes to Gay-Straight Alliance events that are happening in schools and also theater events as well.

So this could have, you know, kind of really broad implications to education and.

>>Certainly a lot for school administrators and teachers to to navigate as we go forward.

Let's talk about the uncertainties of how this will be implemented on campuses.

Here's Amanda Phalin, a member of the Board of Governors at their meeting this week.

>>I'm aware that state law requires us, the board of governors, to pass this regulation.

However, I believe it is also my duty to point out that in places where similar laws have been implemented, there has been an increase in harassment of people who are using or attempting to use the restroom.

I'm happy to provide governors with additional information if they would like.

In the meantime, I do recommend that the Board of Governors direct institutions to keep and report data on any instances of harassment that may occur going forward.

>>As we all cover this issue, Chantelle, there remains a lot of uncertainty, right?

And, you know, like we heard just then about what are going to be the implications in terms of harassment and so forth.

And it's not just in Florida.

There are other states that have passed similar laws and now have to implement them.

I mean, what are we seeing elsewhere?

>>Well, you know, somewhere like North Dakota, for example, they also passed a law that would limit, according to somebody's gender, the gender you're assigned at birth, only you're allowed to use the bathroom in that sense.

But then a lot of people have been fighting back on it there as well.

We have the school district over there who said, no, we're just going to completely ignore that law.

And then a lawmaker tried to take away their funding there.

So there has been some pushback.

>>Yeah, one of the school districts there did do that and said we haven't seen anything like that happened in Florida.

Brendan, I mean, the so called Safety in Private Spaces Act is just sort of one of several steps that the DeSantis administration has taken on LGBTQ issues kind of writ large.

You you mentioned a couple of them.

I mean, remind us of some of those other restrictions that we've sort of seen implemented over the last couple of years.

>>I had to write them down because there's quite a few.

There's the law that banned transition related care for minors.

Parental rights and education, as you mentioned.

Critics would call it the so called the don't Say gay bill first started from K through third grade.

That has also been expanded.

DeSantis administration has also requested trans health care information from university students who have requested transition medical services.

They've also banned trans athletes from competing in in sports other than the gender assigned at birth.

>>So the bathroom law doesn't exist in a vacuum.

Chantelle, just finally on this, I mean, WFTV has been covering the fallout of these laws that affect transgender people in Florida.

We heard from one transgender person earlier.

What's your outlet's reporting found?

>>I mean, we found that they have and they have been continuing to fight back against this.

I mean, we've seen protests we've seen protests at the university about this as well.

And it doesn't look like either side is backing out any time soon.

>>Yeah, well, certainly the administration says that this is about safety and that they want to continue to press those priorities going forward.

You can find a lot more information on this issue, including the texts of the Safety and Private Spaces Act, as well as the rules from both the Board of Governors and the Board of Education.

It's all on our website, wucf.org/newsnight.

All right.

Finally tonight, we have Brendan here in the studios, so we should talk a little bit about space while he's here, of course.

And the most important news to come out of NASA for a while.

I think so.

Anyway, it's a report on UFOs or UAPs as the agency describes them.

No evidence of extraterrestrials has been found after NASA's commissioned a year long independent study into unidentified anomalous phenomena.

>>We did so with a few goals in mind.

First, to examine how NASA's can use our expertise and instruments to study UAP from a scientific perspective.

Second, shift the conversation about UAP from sensationalism to science, and to make sure that whatever we find or whatever we recommend to make sure that information is shared transparently around the world.

The NASA's independent study team did not find any evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin, but we don't know what these UAP are.

>>Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator there.

Okay Brendan, we're talking to you about space.

Let's start with UFOs then.

I mean, NASA's says it's found no evidence of extraterrestrial origins of UFOs, but it still can't explain some of them.

It's kind of what we expected them to say, right?

It says there needs to be new scientific techniques and less stigma in order to investigate this further.

What would that sort of key findings for you in that report?

>>I think the key findings were that NASA's taking a look closer to home.

You know, you and I have talked about this before.

NASA's already on the search for alien life on other planets and other solar systems through.

We've got a rover on Mars right now that is actually collecting samples, looking for signs of ancient life on on that planet.

We've got the James Webb Space Telescope that's looking at planets that exist outside of our own solar system for signs of life as well.

So they've got all of those processes happening, but now they're taking a closer look to see if they can find the little green men here, here on our planet.

And I think it's really interesting in that report, you know, they argue that they can use some of the tools that they have that we're using right now to monitor our planet and others to streamline our efforts to try to coordinate the search for explanations of UAPs.

I think that's really cool.

And it's no surprise that this administration is doing it at all.

>>I mean, why do they think it's important?

>>Well, because it's we don't have an answer.

And scientists don't like having an answer to things.

Right.

And that's it is a scientific community.

So I think what's for them or for NASA is that there are unanswered questions out there and there's technologies out there that can help answer those questions.

It's not just about finding signs of life.

That's also a national security issue.

If these reports of UFOs or UAPs aren't coming from elsewhere and they're from our adversary, we need to know what they are.

>>Well, NASA's also named a new head of UAP research, right?

I mean, I've seen it described as a UFO czar.

We've never had one of those before.

Right.

I mean, who is taking up that role and what's its function and significance, do you think?

>>I think what was really interesting is they didn't release the name right away.

>>Yes.

Yes.

Somewhat later.

Yeah.

>>Because just to add more mystery.

But but they eventually did.

This particular person has been a liaison between the NASA and the DOD.

So what this signals is that NASA's going to be sharing that information.

And one of the findings in that UAP report was that there wasn't a streamlined way to report signs of UAP or to collate all of the data coming from different agencies.

So having this liaison that will work with NASA, with all of their remote sensors, they have satellites that can look down on earth, satellites that can look out into into the universe, and then whatever assets the DOD have, that's a really important step in kind of aligning all of our information that we have.

>>I want to talk a bit about Space X, because as you and I were talking off camera earlier, Space X launches really dominate the launch activity currently on the Space Coast here in central Florida.

And it's important issue not only for our region, but but also for NASA itself.

I want to talk about Elon Musk and how NASA's views him at the moment.

I mean, the role he's playing, for example, with the StarLink satellites and Ukraine in its deep ties to China, his efforts to do business there.

Is that raising concerns at NASA from your reporting?

What are you hearing about how NASA's views Elon Musk in this sort of business empire at this stage?

>>You have to remember, NASA is extremely reliant on Space X right now.

They are one of two providers that ship supplies to International Space Station.

They are the only active transport right now for U.S. to send astronauts to the space station.

Boeing's coming online with its own astronaut transport system.

But right now, SpaceX sent eight crews up there at this point.

And also the first two or three moon landing missions are reliant upon Space X's starship as its lander.

The agency is extremely reliant on SpaceX for those things.

The agency is also historically apolitical and does not want to get into kind of political beefs, which Elon Musk does seem to like to do.

And so there are concerns with that.

When Musk bought Twitter, there were concerns that that there may be, you know, a lack of focus on SpaceX.

So he put a lot of the the day to day operations with his CEO, Gwynne Shotwell, to take care of that.

So that's been alleviating some of those concerns.

But that concern is still there.

You know, what happens with with Musk's multiple ventures and and that could come back and hurt NASA.

>>And Bill Nelson as the NASA administrator has raised this issue with with with Gwynne Shotwell.

Right.

I mean, did you get reassurances from her?

>>He did get reassurances and reassurances that, you know, the Twitter buy would not affect the development of Starship, which is the Moon lander for NASA's Artemis missions.

But we are seeing development delays there, not because of lack of focus, but because of, you know, some regulatory issues.

But but there aren't there are concerns there.

But it seemed like Nelson was reassured with those with that.

>>Well, Elon Musk certainly on the radar of the US government one way or another thats for sure.

>>But that is all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Brendan Byrne.

90.7 WMFE News.

Thanks for coming in, Brendan.

>>Any time.

>>Chantelle Navarro from WFTV Channel 9.

Thanks so much for coming in as well Chantelle, really appreciate your time today, guys.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

From all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.