Ron DeSantis’s Surgeon General Tells Parents It’s Okay to Send Their Unvaccinated Kids to School Amid Measles Outbreak

In 2021, Ron DeSantis appointed Joseph Ladapo the surgeon general of Florida, after Ladapo’s op-eds questioning mask-wearing, COVID-19 vaccines, and other public health measures caught the governor’s eye. In the ensuing years, Ladapo has recommended children should not receive the COVID vaccine, has “weaponize[d] bad science to spread anti-vaccine disinformation as official policy,” and has personally “altered key findings in [a] study on Covid-19 vaccine safety.” Now, Ladapo is bringing his medical point of view to a measles outbreak that he appears happy to let explode on his watch.

In a letter sent to parents this week, Ladapo alerted them to a cluster of measles cases that had been identified in Manatee Bay Elementary School and wrote that “it is normally recommended that individuals without history of prior infection or vaccination stay home for up to 21 days,” as “up to 90% of individuals without immunity will contract measles if exposed.” Having said that? He’s cool with people sending their unvaccinated children to school, despite that whole thing about 90% of unvaccinated people likely contracting the disease. The Florida Department of Health, Ladapo said, “is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance.”

Not surprisingly, health experts who actually believe in science have said such guidance is wildly irresponsible, with at least one blaming Ladapo for the outbreak. “The reason why there is a measles outbreak in Florida schools is because too many parents have not had their children protected by the safe and effective measles vaccine,” John P. Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, told The Washington Post. “And why is that? It’s because anti-vaccine sentiment in Florida comes from the top of the public health food-chain: Joseph Ladapo.” Dr. Ben Hoffman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the outlet the guidance from Florida “runs counter to everything I have ever heard and everything that I have read. It runs counter to our policy. It runs counter to what the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] would recommend.” (As the Post notes, measles can cause severe health complications, including death.)

Patsy Stinchfield, president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told the Post the outbreak will become a major threat to the community if unvaccinated people who’ve been exposed to the disease don’t follow health recommendations like staying at home during the time they may be contagious. In other words, things could get a lot worse if people listen to the Florida surgeon general.

Ladies and gentlemen, the modern Republican Party

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