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Holland sentinel recent obituaries4/5/2024 Scott Rivkees, a former Florida surgeon general and now a Brown University professor, criticized Ladapo’s memo in an interview with KFF News. “We’re leaving up to parents a decision that parents don’t have the toolset to make.” “This is contrary to 50 years of really good public health policy,” Alexander said. “Due to the high immunity rate in the community, as well as the burden on families and educational cost of healthy children missing school, (the state health department) is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance,” Ladapo wrote.Īlexander argued that public health officials, not parents, are best equipped to make that call. If a school does experience a measles outbreak, Alexander urged parents to keep their unvaccinated children home for 21 days, in line with advice from public health leaders and every major health organization.īut after the Broward County outbreak, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo sent out a letter that left the decision up to parents whether to let their kids go back to school. Nemours Children’s Health met Monday morning to ensure they were prepared and had adequate protective gear if a Central Florida child does contract measles, Alexander added. Of these, at least eight have contracted the virus. The Broward County school district said Friday that only 33 of Manatee Bay’s 1,067 students don’t have at least one shot of the two-dose measles vaccine. Manatee Bay didn’t necessarily fall into the category of low vaccination rates, and still, the spread has been extensive. “An unimmunized child in a school with a low immunization rate – maybe a private school or something like that – that’s the kind of situation where the virus gets into the school and it spreads like wildfire,” Alexander said. Unvaccinated people have a 90% chance of becoming infected if exposed. If a Central Florida outbreak does occur, Alexander cautioned, it will likely be in an especially susceptible pocket of the region where large numbers of unvaccinated people congregate together – for example, a church or private school. The Florida Department of Health did not respond to requests for updated data for the 2023-24 school year. The most recent data available, also from 2022, indicates 88.2% of kindergarteners had gotten all their required shots, about 12,000 of the more than 13,600 kids enrolled. Orange County has seen its immunization rate fall almost every year since 2015. It was 93% the year prior.Įditorial: Facing a measles outbreak, Ladapo sends the wrong message Statewide, in 2022 – the most recent data publicly available – 91.7% of Florida kindergarteners had gotten the immunizations required to attend school, including the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. To prevent measles, the CDC recommends children get two doses of the vaccine, with a first dose at ages 12 through 15 months, and the second dose at 4 through 6 years of age.įlorida falls short of the 95% vaccination goal. Germs can linger in the air hours after an infectious person leaves the room. The disease is incredibly infectious, “like fire and gas,” Alexander said. About 1 in 1,000 will develop brain swelling that can cause permanent injury, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I don’t think you’re going to see measles spread around Florida, widespread, the way COVID does, because most people … are pretty well-vaccinated.”Ībout 1 in 5 unvaccinated people who get measles are hospitalized, as many as 1 in 20 kids who get measles will develop pneumonia. If your kids aren’t vaccinated, think hard about that,” Alexander said. “If your kid is vaccinated, good for you, sleep well. Kenneth Alexander, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Nemours Children’s Health in Orlando, said vaccinated people shouldn’t worry about the state’s recent cases because two doses of the measles vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing the disease.īut the cases this year should serve as a warning for Central Florida parents who have chosen not to vaccinate their kids, he said.
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