In the latest incident of an apparent attempt to weaponize the national health system, the Surgeon General for Florida is again standing up to the CDC.
Two Florida children have contracted measles after the state’s top health official defied federal guidance to contain an outbreak at an elementary school.
Six children at Manatee Bay Elementary School, in Westin near Fort Lauderdale, caught the disease over a week ago. New state health data show two more cases in Broward County, of a child younger than 5 and another between ages 5 and 9.
The newly reported infections bring the total to eight, just days after Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo contradicted federal and medical professional guidance to contain the spread of the highly contagious and preventable disease that’s resurging globally and in the U.S. Florida is one of 11 states that have seen cases this year.
It’s unclear if Florida’s two new cases are connected to the school outbreak. Broward County Public Schools haven’t identified new cases since Tuesday, when there were six, district spokesperson John Sullivan said.
The state Department of Health said there was no additional information at this time.
In a letter Tuesday, Ladapo said Manatee Bay parents and guardians could decide whether to send their children back to school, a statement that conflicted with federal and medical professional recommendations that children from the school should remain at home to prevent the spread of measles.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that unvaccinated children exposed to measles be isolated for three weeks.
Ladapo appeared to agree with this assessment before he concluded that children’s attendance was up to parents or guardians because of the “high immunity rate” and the burden of healthy children missing school, but he said the state’s recommendation could change.
