Florida’s Private School With $25,000 Price Tag Promotes Anti-Vax Misinformation

There’s new anti-science nonsense coming from Florida. Within the spring, Miami made information when its Centner Academy, a non-public college, advised academics they should wait until summer break to get vaccinated or remain distanced from students. They’re in any other case refusing to employ vaccinated teachers. The varsity additionally falsely mentioned, now we have ladies academics with “…menstrual cycles impacted after having frolicked with a vaccinated particular person.”

This week, the Centner Academy, which calls itself the “Mind College,” went a step additional in selling vaccine misinformation. Now that vaccines can be found to kids 12-years and older, the varsity has issued a press release saying, “Due to the potential affect on different college students and our faculty group, vaccinated students will need to stay at home for 30 days post-vaccination for every dose and booster they obtain.”

There’s zero scientific foundation for his or her decrees. The vaccines include no stay virus, so they can not infect recipients or their contacts. Nor can it trigger miscarriages in coworkers, a problem the academy’s CEO, Leila Centner, raised. Centner might take a look at the CDC’s web page on vaccine myths, which explicitly says, “Vaccine shedding can solely happen when a vaccine incorporates a weakened model of the virus. Not one of the vaccines approved to be used within the U.S. include a stay virus.”

Centner’s co-founder, David Centner, told CNN, “Centner Academy’s coverage was enacted as a prudent precautionary measure after a lot considerate deliberation…The varsity is just not opining on whether or not a vaccinated particular person can negatively affect others…We have to do what’s greatest for our college students and employees.”

Mother and father who eliminated their college students from the expensive personal college—tuition is $25,000 per 12 months—have been additionally asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Whereas resisting the federal government’s science-based suggestions for masking and vaccinations, Centner had no drawback accepting an $800,000+ Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, which is commonly forgiven. Centner has appreciable vaccine misinformation on her Instagram web page (leilacentner3). She describes masking kids as little one abuse and refers to President Biden by saying, “You would not have to obey this clowns [sic] orders” to vaccinate staff (Sept. 10).

This stance from the Centner Academy is a part of a sample of misinformation coming primarily from Florida and Texas. As I wrote in my recent Medscape post, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis authorized “private school vouchers if mother and father say kids really feel bullied by a district’s mask-wearing guidelines.” DeSantis additionally signed an executive order that prohibits “counties, cities, college districts, public well being authorities, or authorities officers — from requiring or mandating mask-wearing,” regardless that that has been well-shown to reduce the spread of Covid.

Final month, DeSantis additionally appointed Dr. Joseph Ladapo as new surgeon basic and secretary of the state’s well being division. Ladapo, a cardiovascular specialist who has no public well being credentials, has additionally opposed masks and vaccine mandates and has claimed, “The risks of a COVID-19 vaccine may outweigh the benefits for sure low-risk populations, similar to kids…”

What’s the truth? A CDC study has discovered that the Pfizer vaccine was 93% efficient at stopping Covid-19 hospitalizations for these 17 and underneath.

Moreover, masks have been proven to scale back the danger of Covid an infection. In a recent CDC study from Arizona, “the percentages of a school-associated COVID-19 outbreak in faculties and not using a masks requirement have been 3.5 instances larger than these in faculties with an early masks requirement.” One other CDC examine concludes, “Constant and correct mask use is a critical strategy for stopping the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.”

Since appointing Ladapo, DeSantis is additional undermining vaccination efforts. In Could, he signed a liability protection bill that makes it tougher for individuals to sue companies or medical suppliers who they consider uncovered them (or household) to Covid. This week, he’s proposing stripping the invoice to allow suits against companies that mandate vaccines for his or her staff or prospects. On the identical time, whereas denigrating vaccine insurance policies, he has been a fierce advocate of Regeneron’s monoclonal antibodies. CREW (Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington) notes that DeSantis’ pal, Ken Griffin, has donated $10.75 million to DeSantis’s political committee since 2018. Griffin can also be the CEO of Citadel, which invested $15.9 million in Regeneron.

Whereas circumstances are trending downward in Florida, as they’re in a lot of the US, Florida has had 3,626,142 deaths from Covid and ranks 7^th in infections per 100,000.

That’s the large Covid information from Florida this week. With the Centner Academy’s stance Florida’s Covid insurance policies proceed to get more odd.