Dr. Joseph Ladapo and Gov. Ron DeSantis.Photo: Joe Cavaretta/Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty
Florida’s surgeon general saw backlash on Monday after he announced that “healthy kids” should not getvaccinated against COVID-19.
Dr. Joseph Ladapo, along with Gov. Ron DeSantis, said they would issue guidance making Florida “the first state to officially recommend against the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children.”
Ladapo did not offer any additional details on when the guidance would become official or what they would define as a “healthy” child.
Though children are less likely to develop severe illness from COVID-19, they are still getting sick and spreading the virus.Since the beginning of January 2022, more that 4.8 million kids have tested positive for COVID-19, nearly half of all pediatric cases since the start of the pandemic,according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Andthousands were hospitalized during that period.
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Children can also develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) in the weeks after getting COVID-19, which causes the body to become inflamed and potentially damage major organs like the brain, lungs, heart and kidneys.
Ladapo and DeSantis had pointed to therisk of getting myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, from the vaccine. However,the CDC sayscases of myocarditis “have rarely been reported, especially in adolescents and young adult males within several days after” vaccination. Additionally, the few who developed it have generally “responded well to medicine and rest and felt better quickly.”
The Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics called Ladapo’s announcement “irresponsible.”
“It is irresponsible to advise parents not to vaccinate their children against this virus.”
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source: people.com
