‘They’re Going to Find Out’: Health Officials Criticize Florida’s Relaxed Measles Response

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration is defying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) advice about the state’s growing measles outbreak, prompting health officials to call for more vaccinations and quarantining.

Broward County confirmed a seventh case of the virus on Friday — a child under the age of five. The child is the youngest and first person to become infected outside of Manatee Bay Elementary School, NBC News reports.

Cases are “not going to stay contained just to that one school, not when a virus is this infectious,” said University of Alabama pediatric infectious disease expert Dr. David Kimberlin.

The same day as the new case was confirmed, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo “subverted” a public health standard that has “long kept measles outbreaks under control,” CBS Health Watch reported.

A Tuesday memo from Ladapo sent to Manatee Bay parents granted them permission to continue sending their unvaccinated children to school.

The DeSantis appointee wrote that the state’s Department of Health “is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance,” which contradicts CDC guidelines saying to quarantine unvaccinated students at home for 21 days after exposure. 

According to CBS, “Students are considered exposed simply by sitting in the same cafeteria or classroom as someone infected.”

“About 1 in 5 people with measles end up hospitalized, 1 in 10 develop ear infections that can lead to permanent hearing loss, and about 1 in 1,000 die from respiratory and neurological complications,” the publication stated.

“I don’t know why the health department wouldn’t follow the CDC recommendations,” said Thresia Gambon, a Broward pediatrician who also leads the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Measles is so contagious. It is very worrisome.”

Scott Rivkees, Florida’s former surgeon general, who served during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, asserted that “this is not a parental rights issue.”

“It’s about protecting fellow classmates, teachers, and members of the community against measles, which is a very serious and very transmissible illness,” he said to NBC. 

Rivkees resigned from his public position in September 2021 after DeSantis “shunned” him for their differences in coronavirus health policy, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

In September 2023, Rivkees lambasted the governor for his administration’s claim that the coronavirus booster shots had “not been proven to be safe or effective.”

“I think the cumulative effect of this anti-vaccine messaging is being felt,” he told USA Today at the time.

National vaccine exemption rates for schoolchildren are at an all-time high. A November CDC report found that during the 2022-2023 school year, three percent of incoming kindergartners were granted an exemption.

Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Peter Licata said at a Wednesday school board meeting that 33 out of 1,067 Manatee Bay Elementary School students are unvaccinated.

“More and more people are questioning vaccines and why people need vaccines,” Dr. Kimberlin said. “They’re gonna find out pretty soon.”

Unvaccinated individuals have a 90 percent chance of contracting measles if exposed to the virus, NBC reported.

“Measles is the most infectious pathogen in humans that we know of,” Kimberlin said. “It’s like a heat-seeking missile. It will find the people who are not immune, and they’re going to get sick.”