Delaware Joins Regional Public Health Coalition
Good:
Gov. Matt Meyer announced Sept. 5 that Delaware will join Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York in a regional public health alliance.
The group was first formed by Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Sept. 4, following a contentious Senate hearing that day with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. During it, he faced tough bipartisan questions about his stance on vaccines.
The coalition also comes after Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, announced Sept. 3 that he would be working with that state’s Department of Health and Gov. Ron DeSantis to “end all vaccine mandates” there. This would include immunizations required for school attendance, such as measles, chicken pox and polio.
The Northeast collaborative is focused on developing evidence-based recommendations about vaccines, disease surveillance and emergency preparedness, all while supporting state public health labs.
“Science must continue to determine how we keep our state healthy, and that science says vaccines save lives and protect our communities,” Gov. Meyer said in a statement Sept. 5.
Florida’s Surgeon General says his team did not study what impact ending vaccine mandates in the state would have on the spread of diseases.
Ladapo has said that required vaccinations are equivalent to government-imposed “slavery”, and that ending them is a question of parental rights.
Ladapo, who has a history of promoting health-related misinformation, said on Wednesday that the Florida Department of Health and the governor’s office would work together to end every single vaccine mandate.
“Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Ladapo said.
In his case, the disdain is justified.
So visiting the cesspool that is Florida for either pleasure (dubious) or necessity (Huh?) is out, right? I can’t imagine taking my children or my immune compromised self to a place like that. Nor can I imagine international visitors considering a stay in a place that does not require its school children to be vaccinated against the usual childhood communicable diseases. This is almost the most insane government policy on earth. Are these people completely nuts? Guns and pestilence, gee, let’s go on a vacation! Add in lots of bacteria filled water and bugs. Get me a ticket!
If you’re not a regular reader of Carl Hiassen, he pretty much nails The Scam That Is Florida every time out.
That’s why I’ve only read a couple of them. I don’t want to spend any time there even to mock them.
Places where even an idiot can’t freeze to death attract a lot of idiots who otherwise might.