FLORIDA – To Recommend AGAINST Vaccines For Healthy Kids

Once again Florida is out in front on COVID, this time telling Floridians, it’s time to leave the children alone.

Defying guidance from the nation’s top infectious disease and pediatric health experts, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced Monday that the state will become the first to recommend that healthy kids not get vaccinated for COVID-19.

Ladapo made the announcement at the end of a roundtable discussion in West Palm Beach that Gov. Ron DeSantis convened to discuss “failures” in the response to COVID-19. The group of experts downplayed the importance of the vaccine for children, with some saying the benefits of vaccination do not outweigh the risks.

Florida “is going to be the first state to officially recommend against the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children,” Ladapo said, without elaborating on the details or rationale for the forthcoming guidance from the state Department of Health.

The move rejects the guidance issued by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that all children ages 5 to 7 should be vaccinated.

He did not elaborate or specify when the agency would officially release its guidelines.

Dr. Robert Malone, who has risen to prominence for contradicting the scientific consensus on COVID-19, claimed that “the consensus of over 17,000 physicians and medical scientists are that the risk-benefit ratio for children does not justify vaccination.”

Malone appeared to be referring to a declaration signed by medical professionals as part of the “Global COVID Summit” initiative.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in children as young as 5 based on the findings of a study showing the child-size doses were 91 percent effective at preventing symptomatic cases of the virus.

Kids with pre-existing conditions, like obesity, diabetes, or asthma, face higher than usual risks for severe illness and hospitalization.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki criticized Ladapo’s announcement, saying data shows that “unvaccinated teenagers are three times as likely to be hospitalized if they get COVID than vaccinated teenagers.”

“So it’s deeply disturbing that there are politicians peddling conspiracy theories out there and casting doubt on vaccinations when it is our best tool against the virus and the best tool to prevent even teenagers from being hospitalized,” she added.

As expected, CNN brought on guests to refute the actions of probably the most unpopular Republican governor in the nation, for the left. On the other hand, Governor DeSantis ranks number one for those on the other side of the aisle.

Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told CNN he is “disappointed and actually concerned” by the Florida surgeon general’s announcement.

“I think [vaccination] continues to be the best recommendation,” he said. “I would continue to make it to all parents of children 5 and older. The benefits clearly outweigh the risks, and they provide us a firmer foundation for the control of Covid going forward.”

Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said Ladapo’s statement Is “wholly irresponsible and completely unsupported.” he told CNN.

“Although it is true that children are less likely to be infected and it is true that children are less likely to be severely infected, they can still be infected, and they can still be severely infected,” Offit added.

The data has always shown that children have a very small chance of getting infected with COVID and an even a lesser chance of dying from it.

The left, however, has argued that the CDC’s recommendations for the children to wear masks, and then be vaccinated, was to try to prevent the adults exposed to the children from getting infected, not only for the children themselves.

I say, leave the children alone and to go back to normal living again.

By: Eric Thompson, editor of Eric Thompson Show.