Florida Plan to Advocate Towards COVID Vaccine For Youngsters Beneath Fireplace
March 8, 2022
Well being consultants throughout the nation spoke out in opposition to Florida Surgeon Normal Joseph Ladapo after he mentioned the state Division of Well being will advocate wholesome youngsters not be vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19.
“The Surgeon Normal’s feedback immediately misrepresent the advantages of the vaccine, which has been confirmed to forestall severe sickness, hospitalizations and long-term signs from COVID-19 in youngsters and adolescents, together with those that are in any other case wholesome,” Lisa Gwynn, MD, president of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, mentioned in a statement.
“The proof is evident that when individuals are vaccinated, they’re considerably much less prone to get very sick and wish hospital care. There’s widespread consensus amongst medical and public well being consultants in regards to the life-saving advantages of this vaccine.”
On Monday, Ladapo mentioned the state Division of Well being will advocate wholesome youngsters not be vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 as a result of the vaccine’s advantages don’t warrant the dangers. Lapado didn’t say precisely when the state would formally take a place in opposition to the vaccine for youngsters, CNN reported.
He spoke at a roundtable in West Palm Seaside known as to debate “the failures of lockdowns and mandates in response to COVID-19.” Florida could be the primary state to take a place in opposition to youngster vaccinations for COVID.
Paul Offit, MD, the director of the Vaccine Training Heart at Kids’s Hospital of Philadelphia, known as Lapado’s assertion “wholly irresponsible and fully unsupported.”
“Though it’s true that youngsters are much less prone to be contaminated and it’s true that youngsters are much less prone to be severely contaminated, they will nonetheless be contaminated, and so they can nonetheless be severely contaminated,” Offit mentioned on CNN.
“What the Florida surgeon basic did not do was in any sense clarify himself. What doable purpose might he have for not giving this vaccine to youngsters and placing them able the place they need to endure this illness?”
Lapado cited a study from the New York State Department of Health which discovered the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness in opposition to hospitalizations and infections in youngsters aged 5-11 dropped sharply over six weeks.
The CDC and most medical professionals, together with the New York researchers who carried out the examine, say the COVID vaccine stays important to curb extreme illness with the virus. The FDA has approved the Pfizer vaccine for youngsters age 5 and older.
William Schaffner, MD, a professor within the division of infectious illness at Vanderbilt College Medical Heart, joined the outcry in opposition to Lapado.
“The advantages clearly outweigh the dangers, and so they present us a firmer basis for the management of Covid going ahead,” Schaffner mentioned to CNN.
