The number is now five.
Broward County Public Schools announced late on Monday afternoon that there are now five confirmed cases of measles at Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston. It's unknown if those students were vaccinated, but infectious disease experts said as of Friday, when this outbreak became public knowledge, that it’s highly likely the kids are not vaccinated.
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Most children get the MMR — or measles, mumps and rubella — vaccine, but with a disease as contagious as measles, doctors say it only takes a few holdouts to fuel an outbreak. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows Florida among the states in which parents using a religious exemption to opt their children out of traditional childhood vaccinations is trending upward.
“Definitely, parents today are much more hesitant than ever. We actually are struggling in our pediatric practices to get kids completely immunized, to complete their series by the time they enter kindergarten because parents are scared, they’re kind of feeding into this misinformation,” said Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a pediatrician who teaches pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “It is extremely unfortunate because it’s all preventable, and the measles vaccine has been around a long time and it’s safe and effective, so the fact that we are still seeing this in modern times is really unfortunate, it’s also dangerous for the community, measles is an extremely infectious and contagious virus.”
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According to the CDC, the MMR vaccine is about 98% effective in preventing measles. Gwynn says it’s reasonable to assume that the children who came down with the virus at Manatee Bay Elementary School are not vaccinated.
“It is my hometown school and I live right around the corner, and so yes, this hits home to me,” Gwynn said.
One year ago, NBC6 asked Dr. Gwynn about the threat of the anti-vax movement.
“We are absolutely worried, we’re worried sick all across the country, what has started with the COVID vaccine has now bled over into traditional vaccinations,” Gwynn said in March of 2023.
She thinks the vocal opposition to COVID-19 vaccines by Florida’s surgeon general is having an impact now on MMR vaccine rates.
“And so we in the pediatric offices are doing everything in our power to educate parents so they understand these things can come back very quickly and the only means to protect their children is to get vaccinated,” Gwynn told NBC6 on Monday.
Meanwhile, the school will be open as usual on Tuesday morning. The school district says it has deep-cleaned the building and changed all the air conditioning filters.
