Measles: Why cases are spiking in Florida
“Florida is trying out a new approach to measles control,” said Daniel Engber in The Atlantic: “No one will be forced to not get sick.” At least nine cases of the highly contagious disease have been detected in Broward County, including seven at a single elementary school. But rather than order parents to keep unvaccinated, exposed children home—as the CDC recommends—Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said in a letter that he was “deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance.” While his letter did note the benefits of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR), he did not encourage parents to get their kids immunized. That would have been wildly out of character. Since his appointment by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021, Ladapo has shown an unparalleled “commitment to undermining vaccination,” condemning Covid shots as “not appropriate” for humans. It’s no surprise he’s “rolled the dice” on a disease that hospitalizes 1 in 5 unvaccinated patients and kills 3 in 1,000.
“An even greater outbreak” is inevitable, said Kiera Butler in Mother Jones. While just under 92 percent of Broward County kindergartners are fully vaccinated, the CDC says at least 95 percent of a population must be immune to prevent measles from spreading broadly. This is not just a Florida problem. A growing number of parents across the U.S. are choosing to not get even routine vaccinations for their kids—93 percent of kindergartners were fully vaccinated in 2022, down 2 percentage points from 2021—thanks to “a relentless campaign by anti-vaccine activists” during the pandemic. One of those activists is the governor of Florida, said the Miami Herald in an editorial. DeSantis made Covid vaccine skepticism and lockdown opposition the core of his political brand and failed GOP presidential bid. If he suddenly let Ladapo tell kids without immunity to stay home, Fox News would blast DeSantis as “a Dr. Fauci sellout.”
This anti-scientific fever is spreading, said Zeynep Tufekci in The New York Times. Some GOP-controlled state legislatures are considering “removing or weakening” childhood vaccine mandates. And more than 40 percent of Republican voters now think parents should have the right to skip MMR shots for their kids, even if it “increases the risk of disease to others.” That number has doubled since the start of the pandemic. “Make no mistake”: If vaccine mandates are weakened, many babies, unvaccinated children, and immunocompromised adults will die from preventable diseases. “In a sane world,” that “should be unthinkable.”