In Broward County, Fla., six students at a single elementary school recently became infected with measles. Two more cases of the highly infectious virus have been reported in the county.
Yet instead of following the well-established public health playbook to curb the outbreak, Florida surgeon general Joseph A. Ladapo has done the unthinkable: He told parents they could defy health guidance and continue sending unvaccinated kids exposed to measles to school.
To understand just how outrageous this is, consider some facts. First, measles is a terrible disease. This is universally understood in the medical community. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that as many as 1 in 20 children with measles progresses to pneumonia. One in 10 children develop ear infections, which can result in permanent hearing loss. About 1 in 1,000 will have the infection spread to their brain, which can lead to swelling, seizures and irreversible neurological damage.
For every 1,000 kids who contract measles, up to three will die from it. There is also a rare but terrifying neurological disease that could occur years after someone recovers from measles in which individuals go through months of personality changes and depression, followed by blindness, dementia and uncontrollable jerking and writhing. This condition progressively damages the brain, eventually affecting the parts that control