Defying science, ignoring CDC recommendations, and "deferring to the parents" seem to be Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo's strategy to contain their measles outbreak.
A letter from Florida Surgeon General Ladapo to parents of children enrolled in the BROWARD COUNTY public school where 6 cases of measles have been identified failed to address the severity of the measles, one of the most contagious pathogens known. Florida has dropped below the critical 95% vaccinated threshold to allow herd immunity to be effective, clocking in statewide at around 90%. Broward County could lower. The Surgeon General is not recommending vaccination or sequestration of unvaccinated students but "is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance." So if you think your unvaccianted kid is tougher than encephalitis, send'em to school.
Florida surgeongeneral Joseph A. Ladapo failed tourge parents to vaccinate their children or keep unvaccinated studentshome from school as a precaution in a letter to parents at the Fort Lauderdale-area school this week following six confirmed measles cases.
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Ben Hoffman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said Florida's guidance flies in the face of long-standing and widely accepted public health guidance for measles, which can result in severe complications, including death.
"It runs counter to everything I have ever heard and everything that I have read," Hoffman said. "It runs counter to our policy. It runs counter to what the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] would recommend."
Washington Post
