Pediatricians Slam Ron DeSantis For Discouraging Vaccines For Kids

Pediatricians in Florida have slammed right wing governor Ron DeSantis and his surgeon general Joseph Ladapo for recently recommending that parents NOT get their children vaccinated for COVID-19. The pediatricians are accusing the administration of playing politics with the virus, which is exactly why they made this disgusting and anti-science recommendation. Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

Link - https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/florida-pediatricians-slam-ron-desantis-irresponsible-surgeon-general-for-opposing-vaccines-for-kids/

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

Pediatricians in the state of Florida are lashing out against our authoritarian. Far-right governor, Ron DeSantis and his handpicked lap dog surgeon general, Joseph led Dapo in case you're not familiar with what's happening down here in this hell hole. We call the sunshine state recently DeSantis and LA Dapo had their little COVID theater meeting, which DeSantis swears he wants to end COVID theater, but he's the only one engaging in it in front of the cameras on a TV set, literally engaging in theater about COVID, but either way they met with these quack doctors who said, yeah, don't have to have kids vaccinated. So DeSantis and LA Dapo came out and said that Florida is officially not recommending that you vaccinate your healthy children for COVID 19 first state in the country to do that against literally all medical advice, including that coming from the centers for disease control and prevention.

And now pediatrician are sounding the alarm about how dangerous this idiotic idea is recently. The good folks over at mother Jones spoke to some pediatricians here in the state of Florida leading the charge. And this is what they had to say. This is from Dr. Lisa Gwen. Um, who said that this the comment, excuse me, were irresponsible. There's widespread consensus among medical and public health experts about the life-saving benefits of this vaccine. The surgeon General's comments today misrepresent the benefits of the vaccine, which has been proven to prevent serious illness, hospitalizations, and long-term symptoms from COVID 19 and children and adolescents, including those who are otherwise health. Another pediatrician Dr. Robin Straus had this to say our practice is in an upscale neighborhood, but we still take Medicaid. So we do have, uh, people who are underserved politically. We're very mixed. I really am very impressed with the number of older kids in the 12 to 18 range who have been vaccinated. I would say probably that for those in the five to 11 group, it's not great. Maybe 30%. It's definitely a challenge. Getting the younger ones, vaccinated, everything has become so partisan. The majority of my patients know which side of the aisle I sit on. Nobody ever knew what my political opinions were. Even five years ago, my opinions are based on the science because I'm a pediatrician.

Straus continues by the way, the surgeon, General's not a pediatrician. He came in with preconceived prejudices. He's part of the anti-vaccine anti COVID science group. I always have listened to the American academy of pediatrics, to the experts who are all saying to get children vaccinated. This governor, this administration, they have a predetermined prejudice against the vaccine. Same with masks. I still advocate for masks. Despite the schools dropping the mask mandates because people have a lot of factors to consider. If there's somebody at risk in your home. If the kid is around grandparents a lot, it's something we do for the greater good people are like, the masks are ridiculous. You don't need a mask. People still walk into our office without masks. We hand them out. No one's allowed on our office without a mask. These are going to be tough conversations. I can't get into fights with people.

All I can do is give them the information, the science, which is not what's being given by the Florida department of health. Now I know that's a long statement, but I had to read it all to really give you the impact. Because Ron DeSantis, Joseph LA Dapo, they get to go out there, make these grand declarations. Then they get to disappear and go do whatever the hell they want. They are. Aren't the ones who deal with the ramifications of this. And I can guarantee you every member of that, the Santa's household is vaccinated. I promise you that, like you can't convince me otherwise, LA Dapo, not so sure. He seems like a bit of a quack. So I seriously doubt he got the vaccine. But otherwise, other than that, you know, know, they don't have to be confronted with the sick kids.