ALVA Woodpeckers build home in Alva woman’s house You may have heard of squatters, but this woman is dealing with squawkers. Who needs a rooster to wake up when you have woodpeckers?
FORT MYERS Man claims he was trapped in a high-rise for 5 days A 77-year-old man wants justice after he claims he spent days trapped on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
PUNTA GORDA Charlotte Correctional prisoner arrested for death of another inmate State Attorney Amira Fox convened a grand jury, which decided to move forward with a case against a Charlotte Correctional inmate.
SANIBEL Construction near Dairy Queen eagle nest on Sanibel raises concerns While many eagle nests may be a bit difficult to see, one nest has always been a favorite for Sanibel residents and tourists.
The environmental effects of artificial sweeteners Experts are studying how the foods we eat affect the environment, especially after we flush our waste down the toilet.
Victim reacts to man exposing himself to her Ring camera You get a notification on your phone from your ring camera app that someone is at the door, only to find out it is someone exposing themselves. It’s the last thing victim Maria Kivi wanted or expected to see last week.
LEE COUNTY The art of capturing your eye and drawing you in How do you capture young, hip, trendy, fun, movers and shakers, all in a pose? We take you behind the scenes of a Gulfshore Life cover shoot.
FORT MYERS The lives of two SJC Boxers changed in the ring Two SJC Boxers, Mario Nunez and Arbon Kurtishi, help each other in the ring as each of them had their lives changed because of boxing.
FORT MYERS Chlamydia cases rising sharply in Lee County If you think about a crowded space- something with more than 250 people- if it’s in Lee county, statistically one person has chlamydia.
SANIBEL Sanibel resort day passes hope to get more business on the island A pass will allow vacationers to hang out at a Sanibel beach club for a day in hopes of drumming up some business.
Voting equipment tested ahead of Lee County elections Voting equipment is being tested in Lee County. This is to ensure all ballots are printed and counted correctly for the upcoming election.
Collier County teen assaulted after leaving party The teen has been charged and the sheriff’s office said they’re aware that many believe felony charges are in order, but under Florida law, there are very specific criteria that must be met for felony charges to be filed.
WINK weather team watching tropical wave over Atlantic Ocean The Weather Authority is watching a tropical disturbance over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral drug bust leads investigators to fake fentanyl, cash and guns Cape Coral man arrest on drug charges. Investigators said they found, guns, drugs, and more than $32,000 in Richard Riley’s home.
NAPLES Naples youth flag football team to compete in Ohio tournament This weekend, the Naples Lunatics Green will compete in the Superhero Sports tournament in Canton, Ohio.
ALVA Woodpeckers build home in Alva woman’s house You may have heard of squatters, but this woman is dealing with squawkers. Who needs a rooster to wake up when you have woodpeckers?
FORT MYERS Man claims he was trapped in a high-rise for 5 days A 77-year-old man wants justice after he claims he spent days trapped on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
PUNTA GORDA Charlotte Correctional prisoner arrested for death of another inmate State Attorney Amira Fox convened a grand jury, which decided to move forward with a case against a Charlotte Correctional inmate.
SANIBEL Construction near Dairy Queen eagle nest on Sanibel raises concerns While many eagle nests may be a bit difficult to see, one nest has always been a favorite for Sanibel residents and tourists.
The environmental effects of artificial sweeteners Experts are studying how the foods we eat affect the environment, especially after we flush our waste down the toilet.
Victim reacts to man exposing himself to her Ring camera You get a notification on your phone from your ring camera app that someone is at the door, only to find out it is someone exposing themselves. It’s the last thing victim Maria Kivi wanted or expected to see last week.
LEE COUNTY The art of capturing your eye and drawing you in How do you capture young, hip, trendy, fun, movers and shakers, all in a pose? We take you behind the scenes of a Gulfshore Life cover shoot.
FORT MYERS The lives of two SJC Boxers changed in the ring Two SJC Boxers, Mario Nunez and Arbon Kurtishi, help each other in the ring as each of them had their lives changed because of boxing.
FORT MYERS Chlamydia cases rising sharply in Lee County If you think about a crowded space- something with more than 250 people- if it’s in Lee county, statistically one person has chlamydia.
SANIBEL Sanibel resort day passes hope to get more business on the island A pass will allow vacationers to hang out at a Sanibel beach club for a day in hopes of drumming up some business.
Voting equipment tested ahead of Lee County elections Voting equipment is being tested in Lee County. This is to ensure all ballots are printed and counted correctly for the upcoming election.
Collier County teen assaulted after leaving party The teen has been charged and the sheriff’s office said they’re aware that many believe felony charges are in order, but under Florida law, there are very specific criteria that must be met for felony charges to be filed.
WINK weather team watching tropical wave over Atlantic Ocean The Weather Authority is watching a tropical disturbance over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral drug bust leads investigators to fake fentanyl, cash and guns Cape Coral man arrest on drug charges. Investigators said they found, guns, drugs, and more than $32,000 in Richard Riley’s home.
NAPLES Naples youth flag football team to compete in Ohio tournament This weekend, the Naples Lunatics Green will compete in the Superhero Sports tournament in Canton, Ohio.
FILE – Dr. Joseph Ladapo speaks with reporters after the Florida Senate confirmed his appointment as the state’s surgeon general on Feb. 23, 2022, in Tallahassee, Fla. U.S. health agencies have sent a letter to Florida’s surgeon general, warning him that his claims about COVID-19 risks are harmful to the public. The letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was sent to Ladapo on Friday, March 10, 2023.(AP Photo/Brendan Farrington, File) CLAIM: A study published in The Lancet proves that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines increase people’s chances of contracting the disease after seven months, providing further evidence that people should not get vaccinated. AP’S ASSESSMENT: Misleading. The observational study out of Qatar found that people who received a booster shot with the original vaccine formulation had overall lower rates of infection than those with only two doses over the course of a year. It also found those who were boosted were 75% less likely to experience severe COVID-19. The report did find higher infection rates among the boosted specifically after seven months, but outside experts said the study doesn’t prove the vaccines are biologically increasing recipients’ risk of infection. THE FACTS: Florida’s Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo cited the study Thursday while suggesting that no one should be receiving the widely used mRNA shots. It was the latest in a continuing campaign against public health measures fighting the coronavirus: U.S. health agencies recently sent Ladapo a letter warning him that his claims about vaccine risks are harmful to the public. While speaking at a press conference with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who appointed Ladapo in 2021, the surgeon general claimed that the mRNA vaccines “have a terrible safety profile” and said he was “not sure anyone should be taking them” anymore. He went on to say the study in The Lancet showed protection from infection around 70% plummeting within seven months to “the other side of the axis, right, so it is negative and that continues.” “And the magnitude of that negativity increases over time,” Ladapo continued. “What does that mean, folks? It literally means that the people who received that vaccine were more likely to contract COVID-19 after seven months than the people who did not. That is a fact.” Nikki Whiting, a Florida Health Department spokesperson, said Ladapo’s point was that most people have some existing immunity from COVID-19 from a prior infection and that the study’s finding concerning negative immunity months later means that “risk of infection is higher.” But lead study author Hiam Chemaitelly, a researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar, said in an email that Ladapo’s remarks were “a mischaracterization of our findings.” The study did not compare people who were vaccinated versus those who were unvaccinated, Chemaitelly said, as Ladapo’s comments may have suggested. She said her study showed that booster doses “remain essential, particularly for the elderly and those with comorbidities to protect them against severe COVID-19.” The researchers found that individuals who received a booster shot “were 75% less likely to experience severe COVID-19 compared to those who remained with only the two-dose primary series,” Chemaitelly said. The study looked at boosters using the old formulation, not the newer, omicron-targeting booster shots that better match the strain of the virus now circulating. During the overall year-long follow-up period, those who received a booster dose tested positive for COVID-19 less than people with only two doses. But there was a caveat: After month seven, those who received the booster shot had a higher incidence of infection than those with only two doses — the finding that Lapado homed in on. The authors suggested that the finding may be due to a biological phenomenon. In short, they theorized that the increased infection totals among the boosted may be because their immune systems attempted to fight new variants by targeting the old form of the virus used in the original vaccines. While the study’s authors stood by their theory, four independent experts told the AP they believe the study can’t reliably draw such conclusions because of its inability to control for different factors. The study was observational, meaning it relied on existing data about vaccinations and testing to compare the groups of people who received two doses and three doses. “You have to make sure those two groups are alike in all other aspects so that the only variable between those two groups is the receipt of a booster dose,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a national vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, otherwise the results may be skewed. Those who seek out a third or fourth dose may be more vulnerable — elderly or immunocompromised, for example. “You’re likely selecting for a group that may be more likely to get sick,” Offit added. Matt Hitchings, an infectious disease epidemiologist and professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida, said the group behind the study “has done a lot to enhance our understanding of vaccine effectiveness” but said they did not prove that a biological increased infection risk was actually occurring. “I do think, in this case, that they have not done enough to be clear about other possible explanations for the pattern that they’re seeing,” he added. Dr. Otto Yang, a professor of medicine, microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles, similarly pointed out the biases of such studies. “There are reasons why certain people would be boosted or not boosted, and how often they get tested…and those factors certainly will affect how much risk for infection they face, and how efficiently an asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic infection would be diagnosed or not diagnosed,” he said. Spencer Fox, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Georgia, said in an email: “The negative effectiveness following initial immunity could be caused by many other factors, including behavioral differences between the populations (e.g. if people with 3 vaccines acted riskier because of their perceived protection).” The focus on the infection rates misses the point that the vaccines’ most important feature is their ability to help protect people from getting seriously ill or dying, Offit said, which has been proven repeatedly. Asymptomatic and mild infections will continue to occur regardless because the virus is not going away. “The notion that we don’t need to give vaccines anymore is irresponsible and ill-founded,” he added.