A seventh case, the first in a child under age 5, follows the state’s controversial surgeon general’s decision to let parents decide whether to quarantine children or keep them in school.

The Florida measles outbreak is expanding. On Friday, health officials in Broward County confirmed a seventh case of the virus, a child under age 5.

The patient is the youngest so far to be infected in the outbreak, and the first to be identified outside of Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, near Fort Lauderdale.

It’s unknown what connection the youngest measles case has to the school, but the spread beyond school-age kids was expected.

Cases are “not going to stay contained just to that one school, not when a virus is this infectious,” said Dr. David Kimberlin, co-director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

  • @KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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    44 months ago

    That doesn’t work. Doctors specialize in specific things. There are probably doctors who legitimately have 100% vaccine exempt patients for medical reasons.

    The real problem is that doctors can’t be “fired”. Stop asking the government to do something when it’s really the AMA licensing board that is the problem.

    It’s a private organization that is run by doctors. Obviously doctors are not going to prioritize making it easier to take away someone’s license. Demand the AMA do something about “killer doctors” or something. If their brand is associated with sickness, then they might take action.

    • queermunist she/her
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      34 months ago

      Hey, maybe the AMA licensing board should be a government body! Maybe industry self-regulation doesn’t work!