What Florida is — and isn't — doing to curb the biggest measles outbreak in the US

Florida has a measles problem. Critics say the state's chief health officer might be making things worse.

As of Tuesday morning there are eight diagnosed cases of the virus in the Sunshine State, USA Today said. That may not sound like a lot, but the virus is "highly contagious." Experts usually prescribe "isolation and vaccination" to curb the measles' spread — and particularly urge unvaccinated children to stay at home from school for 21 days if they have been exposed. Not Joseph Ladapo, the state's surgeon general: Last week he told families that Florida is "deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance."

That's alarming to public health officials around the country, NBC News said. The measles virus is "like a heat-seeking missile," said one expert. Unvaccinated people have a 90% chance of getting sick if exposed to the virus, after all. But The New York Times said Ladapo, hired by Gov. Ron DeSantis during the Covid-19 lockdowns, is known for spreading "dangerous falsehoods" about vaccines. "Basically, it's freedom trumps public health, freedom trumps protection," said Dr. Paul Offit of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

This means Florida is conducting a dangerous experiment, Daniel Engber said at The Atlantic. "No one will be forced to not get sick." For the moment, at least, Ladapo "has chosen to lower the guardrails" against the spread of a dangerous and sometimes deadly disease. "So what happens now?"

'Go-to doctor for vaccine deniers'

During the pandemic, Ladapo became the "go-to, Ivy League-educated doctor for vaccine deniers," The Miami Herald said in an editorial. The surgeon general should have told families to "get your children vaccinated — now!" Instead, he's telling parents it's OK to send kids to school "sans immunization." DeSantis and Ladapo ensured that vaccine skepticism "gained force" during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now that skepticism will give new force to diseases "we thought belonged in a bygone era."

"Invented in 1963, the measles vaccine is considered one of the greatest public health triumphs of the last century," Kiera Butler said at Mother Jones. The triumph is now threatened. The Centers for Disease Control says that 95% of a population must be immune — either from vaccination or prior infection — to effectively curb the spread of measles. But in Broward County, Florida, just 91.7% of kindergartners are fully vaccinated, part of a trend of falling vaccination rates nationwide. This means we may see more outbreaks of "vaccine-preventable disease."

Ladapo's advice to families is "pathetic," The Palm Beach Post said in its own editorial. The Florida Department of Health "must stop its anti-vax pandering" and take the measles outbreak seriously. Until then, the "likelihood" is that the number of measles cases will grow "as the virus spreads." It's not sufficient to defer to parental decisions when the virus makes a "Petri dish" of schools. "Parental rights is one thing; responding to a dangerous public health crisis is a different matter entirely."

Vaccine rates are falling

Florida isn't the only place where measles cases are on the rise. The virus is spreading "globally," PBS NewsHour said, "in spite of the widespread availability" of vaccines. "We're not just seeing cases, we're seeing transmission, which means vaccine levels aren't what we'd like them to be," said the University of Maryland's Saskia Popescu. The problem may only grow in the United States. While all states require vaccines for school children, "some have adopted or expanded exemptions" for families that have religious or philosophical objections.

Despite Ladapo's advice, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials told Axios that Florida families probably want to isolate their unvaccinated children if they're exposed to measles. That might be disruptive for families, the group's chief medical officer said in a statement, but "imagine how much more disruptive it would be if measles takes hold again in the United States, spreading widely, and impacting children and communities across the entire nation."