Florida rejects Science regarding COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children

A hot war rages in Ukraine and Americans have the leisure to argue about the extent to which 5-year-olds should be given an emergency use authorized vaccine against a disease that kills the elderly.

For the past 16 months, friends who are physicians have been saying

• vaccinate everyone over 50 or 60 (threshold varies by doc)
• vaccinate no healthy person under 30
• offer the COVID vaccine to people between 30 and 50/60

(See Is it ethical for a physician to vaccinate a healthy 20-year-old against COVID-19? from January 2021, for example)

Horrifyingly, it seems that a public health bureaucrat agrees with the Deplorable Docs in my social circle… “Florida to recommend against Covid-19 vaccine for healthy children” (CNN):

The CDC recommended that children get vaccinated in November, when the shot became available to most kids. Since then, about 22 million children have become fully vaccinated, including 1.1 million Florida kids.

But Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo said the state is going to issue separate guidance urging parents not to vaccinate their kids. Ladapo did not say when that guidance would become official and provided few additional details.

The Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics was also critical of the decision.

“The COVID-19 vaccine is our best hope for ending the pandemic,” chapter President Dr. Lisa Gwynn said in a statement. “The Surgeon General’s comments today misrepresent the benefits of the vaccine, which has been proven to prevent serious illness, hospitalizations and long-term symptoms from COVID-19 in children and adolescents, including those who are otherwise healthy.

“The evidence is clear that when people are vaccinated, they are significantly less likely to get very sick and need hospital care. There is widespread consensus among medical and public health experts about the life-saving benefits of this vaccine.”

Ordinarily, CNN loves to celebrate immigrant success stories. In the case of the above-cited Science-rejecter, according to Wikipedia, the journey began with five years of unmasked childhood in Nigeria, migration to the U.S., and an education at Harvard Medical School. In addition to his M.D., Dr. Ladapo holds a Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard, yet CNN does not consider this migration journey worth highlighting.

From Friday, a mother and child who narrowly escaped a New York tourist’s attempt to vaccinate them both:

(in front of the electric utility’s (free) manatee lagoon)