Florida’s controversial surgeon general is drawing criticism for his handling of an elementary school’s measles outbreak, telling parents of unvaccinated children it is their choice whether their student attends class.

Florida’s controversial surgeon general is drawing criticism for his handling of an elementary school’s measles outbreak, telling parents of unvaccinated children it is their choice whether their students attend class — a contravention of federal guidelines calling for their mandatory exclusion.

Dr. Joseph Ladapo, nationally known for his outspoken skepticism toward the COVID-19 vaccine, sent a letter this week to parents at Manatee Bay Elementary School near Fort Lauderdale after six students contracted the highly contagious and potentially deadly virus. Such outbreaks are rare in the United States, though reported cases have spiked from 58 for all of 2023 to 35 already this year.

The letter notes that when a school has a measles outbreak, it is “normally recommended” that unvaccinated students who haven’t previously had the disease be kept home for three weeks “because of the high likelihood” they will be infected.

    • minibyte@sh.itjust.works
      848·
      9 months ago

      I don’t see the issue here. People that don’t vaccinate their kids seem to have plenty to spare.

      • RegalPotoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        90·
        9 months ago
        • kids don’t have a choice, the state has an obligation to protect them from harms even if their parents willfully put them at risk
        • Vaccines aren’t 100% effective, a certain number of children will catch the disease even if vaccinated
        • Vaccines aren’t available to everyone
        • Greater spread encourages more mutation, leading to more dangerous variants

        Sounds familiar right.

        Remember all those siblings and extended family members who died of smallpox when you were younger? No? That’s because we drove smallpox to the edge of extinction through aggressive vaccination campaigns over decades. We almost managed to do the same with measles until these chucklefucks ruined it for cheap political points, and now 136,000 people died from it last year

        • minibyte@sh.itjust.works
          48·
          9 months ago

          We almost managed to do the same with measles until these chucklefucks ruined it for cheap political points, and now 136,000 people died from it last year

          That was my initial thought, but didn’t think through the previous points you made. Thank you for the quality reply. I retract my statement and admit my ignorance.

        • Telorand@reddthat.com
          25·
          9 months ago

          Thankfully I don’t live in Florida, but this is basically allowing parents to expose other people’s children to diseases against another parent’s knowledge or consent.

          Parents’ rights insomuch as they win political points.

      • agent_flounder@lemmy.worldEnglish
        24·
        9 months ago

        SIGH

        Since we apparently didn’t learn this lesson from COVID…

        There are people out there with compromised immune systems that can’t get vaccinations. And so now they are fucked.

  • alternative_factor@kbin.social
    50·
    9 months ago

    People on /r/medicine were saying in any other situation this would count as unethical human experimentation. But since idiots are calling the shots, Florida will be a great model of a post-vaccination society.

    • OpenStars@startrek.websiteEnglish
      161·
      9 months ago

      What “experimentation” is being done here? We KNOW what’s likely to happen - there is no real knowledge to be gained from this?

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    4·
    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s controversial surgeon general is drawing criticism for his handling of an elementary school’s measles outbreak, telling parents of unvaccinated children it is their choice whether their students attend class — a contravention of federal guidelines calling for their mandatory exclusion.

    Dr. Joseph Ladapo, nationally known for his outspoken skepticism toward the COVID-19 vaccine, sent a letter this week to parents at Manatee Bay Elementary School near Fort Lauderdale after six students contracted the highly contagious and potentially deadly virus.

    The letter notes that when a school has a measles outbreak, it is “normally recommended” that unvaccinated students who haven’t previously had the disease be kept home for three weeks “because of the high likelihood” they will be infected.

    Dr. Rana Alissa, the academy’s Florida vice president, said Friday that the state should follow the CDC guidelines “for the safety of our kids.” Allowing unvaccinated children to attend during the outbreak not only endangers them, but others who might have compromised immune systems and could later catch it from them, she said.

    Jodie Guest, an epidemiologist at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, said the CDC’s guidelines “are based on decades of iterative science” but false information about the measles vaccine’s dangers is spreading.

    Florida law requires that students be vaccinated for measles and several other contagious diseases, but they can be exempted by their doctor for medical reasons or by their parents if they affirm the shots conflict with the family’s “religious tenets and practices.” Officials are not allowed to seek specific information about those beliefs.

    The original article contains 895 words, the summary contains 263 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • LocoOhNo@lemmus.orgEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    I used to live in Volusia County, where a kid died from meningitis recently. The city of Oak Hill had the audacity to call the school “Burns Science and Technology” Charter School.

    The town that it’s in had a history of being populated by people who were hiding out from the cops, most of them for drug charges and about 10 years ago, their entire police force was fired because of meth use. The county is now in charge there.

    This is a town that is in the process of being gentrified, but it is still very much full of ill-informed rednecks that are hostile to any kind of governance.

    The fact that a kid died because of the ignorance of the State of Florida is an absolute tragedy, full stop.

    And this city is also responsible because they know that vaccines are necessary to prevent this kind of thing, and they chose to ignore both common sense and logic.

    Ron DeSantis only set the precedent for Florida to be able to let this happen. The kid’s parents are to blame, along with the city of Oak Hill and Volusia County. Shame on the lot of them.