Private Florida school won’t employ vaccinated teachers
https://apnews.com/article/health-florida-education-coronavirus-9ab40bfee7aac3c834faed7cd8e595eb
— A private school founded by an anti-vaccination activist in South Florida has warned teachers and staff against taking the COVID-19 vaccine, saying it will not employ anyone who has received the shot.
The Centner Academy in Miami sent a notice to parents on Monday informing them of a new policy for its two campuses for about 300 students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Teachers or staff who have already taken the vaccine were told to continue reporting to school but to stay separated from students.
Co-founder Leila Centner told employees in a letter last week that she made the policy decision with a “very heavy heart.” Centner asked those who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine to wait until the end of the school year, and even then recommended holding off.
Centner stood by the decision Tuesday in a statement sent to The Associated Press, which featured the biologically impossible claim that unvaccinated women have experienced miscarriages and other reproductive problems just by standing in proximity to vaccinated people.
“These vaccines are not live COVID virus,” Dr. Andrea L. Cox, professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told The Associated Press in a call. “They can’t infect the people who receive them and they can’t be spread.”
Cox also added that vaccines have not caused miscarriages in the people who got them during pregnancy.
The Florida Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment on the school’s stance on the COVID-19 vaccine.