Or so would Florida’s Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo would have you believe. His vaccine-hesitant approach to public health discourages parents and others from protecting their children with sound preventative measures. He was caught altering the data in medical research studies to support his mistaken idea that Covid vaccines cause heart problems in healthy, young adults. Not related to the topic of this post, but he has also been instrumental in Florida’s decision to deny gender affirming care to minor children, one that is also causing trans adults to have problems maintaining the medical care that they require.

For many of us, his approach to medicine and public health recalls the middle school insult I once observed a student saying to his teacher after suffering through a whole-class harangue about diligence in completing the day’s work, “Quack, quack, quack, you want bread with that?”

National news has reported on an outbreak of measles in a Broward County elementary school. NBC, WaPo, CNN, and the Associated Press among others are reporting on it. There are six confirmed cases for students in the school who are in the subgroup of unvaccinated children that numbers 200. That number may not be accurate as every story quotes a different number, but all of them indicate a vaccination rate for the school that is under 90%. 95% is needed to protect the entire population, vaxxed and unvaxxed, under the concept of herd immunity.

Measles is the most contagious viral disease that we know. If exposed, it is almost a certainty that anyone without protection from a vaccine (or for those of us old enough to predate the MMR vaccine, lingering immunization from contracting measles in childhood) will get the illness and suffer.

Time-honored medical advice for parents whose children are not vaccinated is to keep them home until the community recovers–generally 21 days from the first known infection/exposure.

Also, experts note, it’s never too late to get the vaccine. That will also provide protection. Even if it’s only the first of the two MMR doses needed, it’s better than nothing.

But Ladapo never mentions that in his letter. You can read a copy here if you scroll down.

Instead, he tells parents that it’s their decision. Monitor any symptoms that might appear, don’t rush to the nearest medical facility if they do–call ahead first, but it’s your call.

There is no advice that parents should vaccinate their children if they haven’t yet done so.

Oh, Florida! Or Flori-duh if you’re inclined. The World Health Organization reports that 56,000,000 deaths were averted between 2000 and 2021 due to measles vaccinations. But in 2021, there were 128,000 deaths mostly among unvaccinated or undervaccinated children less than 5 years old.

It’s easy to dismiss the stats like Ladapo. Vaccination has been so successful in suppressing measle, mumps, rubella, and other diseases once known as the childhood diseases that it’s easy to believe that they are no longer needed. But the increasing outbreaks since 2010 give the lie to that thought.

Statistics don’t matter when it’s your kid. Back in my pre-vaccine days, hundreds of kids died from measles every year. That might not mean much given the millions of young children due to the baby-booming, but when it’s your kid, you don’t want to hear how rare it is. IT’S YOUR KID.

The latest news out of Broward is that there’s a new case in the community, one that is not related to the school. Read the article: 1 out of 5 cases results in hospitalization with severe complications.

Somehow, “Quack, quack, quack, you want bread with that?” seems an inadequate way to conclude this post. Not when it’s this serious, not when we may be about to see something we haven’t seen in 60 years.

Ignore the foolishness of Florida and its Surgeon General. Vaccinate your children. Now, if not sooner.