Centner Academy will not employ vaccinated teachers

MIAMI, FLORIDA – The Centner Academy in Miami, a private school founded by an anti-vaccination activist, has warned teachers and staff against taking the COVID-19 vaccine, saying it will not employ anyone who has received the shot.

The school 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.

“You can’t pass it from one person to another if you stand next to someone,” said Dr. Taraneh Shirazian, NYU Langone gynecologist. “That’s a very horrible misconception because it opens up this crazy thinking that you can stand next to people and get what they have, which we know historically has in public health really created a lot of damage.”

The Florida Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the school’s stance on the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and leading women’s health authorities have declared the COVID-19 vaccines being used in the U.S. to be safe and effective, and they are undergoing unprecedented scrutiny for safety. Around the country, teachers were prioritized for early access to the vaccines to protect them from exposure to the coronavirus as schools reopened.

Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease specialist with Florida International University’s Wertheim College of Medicine, said there is no evidence that unvaccinated people face any risks from the vaccinations of others.

Centner and her husband David Centner started the school in 2019 after moving to Miami from New York. The school’s website promotes “medical freedom” from vaccines and offers to help parents opt out of vaccines that are otherwise required for students in Florida.

Earlier this month, Centner criticized measures by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to curb the spread of the virus and said her school went against the guidelines from the moment it reopened in September.

“We did not follow any of the tyrannic measures that were in place. I did not force our kids to wear a mask,” Centner said while attending a “Health and Freedom” rally for a Republican candidate that featured Donald Trump supporters and critics of public health restrictions in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

DeSantis 60 minute scandal related to COVID-19 vaccine?

DeSantis ’60 minute’ scandal has taken over the internet.

A ’60 minute’ report suggests Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida had made a deal to distribute the coronavirus vaccination with Publix Super Market’s pharmacies. Apparently, Governor Ron distributed COVID-19 vaccinations in the South Florida county at Publix Super Market because the company made a donation to his political committee.

On Sunday night, Governor Ron DeSantis warned of unspecified ‘consequences’.

The report focused on the vaccine rollout in Palm Beach County and also suggested Florida’s vaccine distribution had generally favored the wealthy and well-connected.

“These are smear merchants,” DeSantis said during a news conference in Panama City. “They knew what they were doing was a lie.”

The governor said his office had offered people to be interviewed about Florida’s vaccine rollout for the report but the news show declined. He called the “pay-to-play” allegations in the report, “lies built on lies.”

In a statement, CBS said that “60 Minutes” interviewed dozens of people about the story and requested interviews with DeSantis, who declined, and Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz, who declined to be interviewed on camera until after the story’s deadline.

“When Florida state data revealed people of color were vaccinated at a much lower rate than their wealthier neighbors, ‘60 Minutes’ reported the facts surrounding the vaccine’s rollout, which is controlled by the governor,” the CBS statement said. “For over 50 years, the facts reported by ‘60 Minutes’ have often stirred debate and prompted strong reactions. Our story Sunday night speaks for itself.”

On Monday, Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner, a Democrat, issued a statement that accused “60 Minutes” of using “intentionally false” information in its criticism of DeSantis’ role in the Publix deal. Kerner said DeSantis had met with him and the county administrator before the announcement, and they had asked DeSantis to “expand the state’s partnership with Publix” to the county.

“They had that information, and they left it out because it kneecaps their narrative,” Kerner said of “60 Minutes.” Responding to the mayor’s statement, Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said in a tweet, “I respect Mayor but this is NOT accurate.” She said county officials never asked that Publix be the sole distributor of the vaccines.

The state announced in January that Publix, the state’s largest supermarket chain, would have sole vaccine distribution rights in Palm Beach County –- a decision that drew criticism from McKinlay and some state legislators because the chain has no outlets within 25 miles (40 kilometers) of the mostly Black, poverty-stricken sugar farming communities in a rural corner of the county that abuts Lake Okeechobee.

Almost 30,000 people live in Belle Glade and other nearby towns, including about 5,000 residents over 65. McKinlay told The Associated Press and other media outlets at the time that she wasn’t opposed to Publix’s involvement in the distribution effort. She just wanted to make sure Belle Glade residents would have easy access to the vaccine, too.

Within a few days, the state said it would set up a drive-up stand in Belle Glade, just as it had done in numerous wealthier communities across the state.

About 17% of Florida residents are Black, but they make up only 6.5% of the 6.4 million who have received at least one vaccine shot, according to the state. Some of that mirrors a national reluctance among some Black communities to get the vaccine because of past incidents like the Tuskegee Syphilis Study where their ancestors were experimented on by doctors.

The “60 Minutes” report said that weeks before the state announced its partnership with Publix, the supermarket chain donated $100,000 to DeSantis’ political action committee.

Moskowitz, though, said last month that Publix was picked because its pharmacies were the only ones at the time who were able to execute the vaccine distribution. Since then, other major pharmacy chains have been offering vaccines.

Vaccination deadline for US adults moved to 19 April 2021

Vaccination deadline time for eligible adults in US have been cutoff by President Joe Biden. On Tuesday he had announced that he has moved the cutoff time for states to empower qualified residents to get them vaccinated by the 19th of April, 2021.

Within the 75 days that President Biden has been in power, he has effectively given 150 million coronavirus vaccine dosages. He will most likely have 200 million vaccination shots by his 100th day as president.

Regardless of whether the advancement is satisfying, the President is firm in battling the Covid ‘war’ together as Americans by rehearsing solidarity.

President Joe Biden is confident that Americans will be able to celebrate the 4th of July if American’s practice unity in defeating COVID-19.

He says that with joined endeavors from all residents, there is an exceptionally high opportunity for the country, all things considered, to return back to the ordinary. He unequivocally accepts the nation will have returned to typical in practically no time. We can say that the President has unquestionably accomplished his vaccination objective.

“We know what we have to do. We have to ramp up a whole of government approach that rallies the whole country and puts us on a war footing to truly beat this virus. And that’s what we’ve been doing, getting enough vaccine supply, mobilizing more vaccinators, creating more places to get vaccinated, and we’re now administering an average of 3 million shots per day, over 20 million shots a week,”, President Joe Biden said.

As indicated by reports, 75% of individuals over 65 years old have effectively got one shot. 55% have the two shots. President Biden is presently imagining 90% of grown-ups to get immunized by the nineteenth of April. Around 40,000 drug stores are taking part in the government drug store inoculation program.

As per the John Hopkins University report that has been given on Tuesday 555,600 residents died due to the infection. Moreover, the United States Center for Diseases Control and Prevention had noticed that 167 million vaccinations had been managed.

The racism acts towards the Asians in American has additionally spiraled in the midst of the Covid pandemic. As of late, a dissent in regards to this prejudice issue occurred in New York. Pop symbol Rihanna recently took part in a protest in New York as a responsible step towards doing away with the ongoing Asian hate.

There has additionally been the monetary strain and loss of occupations. A few understudies are additionally confronting inconvenience in taking care of credits. President Biden as of late thought about the matter.

Executive order – Businesses prohibited from asking for customers COVID 19 details

Executive order issued on Friday by Governor Ron DeSantis disallows businesses from requiring customers to provide any documentation that they’ve gotten a COVID-19 vaccine to gain access or service. Businesses that do this will not be able to get state grants or contracts, he said.

Governor DeSantis has recently dismissed the notion of so-called “vaccine passports” as conditions for travel or other activities.

“People have certain freedoms and individual liberties to make decisions for themselves,” Governor Ron DeSantis said during a news conference Monday when he announced that he would soon issue an executive order about vaccine passports.

He also said that: “I also wonder, it’s like, okay, you’re going to do this and then what? Give all this information to some big corporation? You want the fox to guard the hen house? I mean, Give me a break.”

The governor’s executive order says that no Florida government is permitted to issue vaccine passports or similar documentation “for the purpose of certifying an individual’s COVID-19 vaccination status to a third party.” It also says that businesses that do require patrons to provide evidence of vaccination or post-transmission recovery from the virus would not be eligible for grants or contracts funded through state revenue.

The request says that requiring vaccine passports “for taking part in everyday life — such as attending a sporting event, patronizing a restaurant, or going to a movie theater — would create two classes of citizens based on vaccination.” DeSantis said the order is needed to “protect the fundamental rights and privacies of Floridians and the free flow of commerce within the state.”

The idea of requiring vaccines is not exactly new; certain inoculation records are needed for school and for certain positions, for example. Yet, the possibility of such international IDs for the Covid has brought up lawful and moral issues — especially from traditionalist policymakers.

Governor DeSantis said on Twitter that he would push for the Legislature to enshrine his vaccine passport policy into Florida law.

No bills enacting restrictions on vaccine passports had been filed as of Friday in either the Florida House or the Florida Senate. But on Thursday, Senate President Wilton Simpson said his chamber would look into the issue. The 60-day legislative session ends April 30.

Some Florida associations have effectively organized endeavors to have supporters show they’ve been inoculated. The South Beach Food and Wine Festival, for example, is requiring confirmation of antibody or proof of a negative Covid test three days prior to going to any occasion.

Some public health experts were concerned that vaccine passports would impede those who have had difficulties in accessing the vaccines.

”We do need to be extremely careful with regard to equity when we’re thinking about vaccination as a rite of passage to enter economic, social, and other public interactions,” said Zinzi Bailey, a social epidemiologist and board member of the Florida Health Justice Project

She noted that many people still have not been vaccinated and that certain groups, such as Black and Hispanic Floridians, are still less likely to have gotten a shot.

Bailey said she doesn’t understand why the governor’s executive order talks about individual freedom but restricts business owners from setting policies to make their employees and customers safer.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Chamber of Commerce declined to comment on the executive order, saying everyone in the office was out for Good Friday.

The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Judy Lisi, president and CEO of the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, is hopeful some Broadway shows could return to Tampa as early as this fall. A passport could help fill theaters faster, she said, especially if professional actors’ unions decide they won’t let members perform in venues without vaccine requirements.

”Our business is going to depend on a high level of vaccine,” she said. “Our audiences, we want to attract them and get them safely inside these theaters, and we need to get to 100 percent capacity.”

She called DeSantis’ stance on passports “unfortunate.”

”I just don’t think he [DeSantis] understands our business or the sports business,” she said. “We’re about people in seats sitting next to each other. So the vaccine passport could be critical for these businesses rebuilding and restarting successfully.”

Spring breakers go wild amid DeSantis’ rule break – COVID 19 rate to go up

Spring breakers cause chaos as millions of them have come to the state by claiming that “there are no lockdowns in Florida” amid Governor Ron DeSantis’ decision to break local pandemic rules. However, the rule-averse Republican left local city leaders hamstrung in their efforts to control unruly crowds and the spread of the virus.

Governor Ron DeSantis recently did away with fines on people and businesses for violating local pandemic orders – as a way of ‘advertising’ to tourists that Florida is indeed safe. Governor Ron DeSantis also abolished restrictions on bars and restaurants. The new COVID 19 variants are said to drive up the rate of new COVID 19 infections through spring break.

Recently in Miami Beach, a surge of spring break visitors filled the island city well beyond its capacity. Officials in Miami Beach, which relies heavily on tourism dollars, were forced to impose an 8 p.m. curfew on the city’s entertainment district in the middle of its most lucrative season of the year after police clashed with party-goers.

“DeSantis rolled out the red carpet for visitors, and he left us to deal with the aftermath,” said Miami Beach City Commissioner David Richardson, a Democrat. “People call it spring break and I correct them — this is a high impact period.”

A thriving economy is a huge selling point for Republicans, and Governor Ron DeSantis is already using his pandemic track record to stage for a grueling reelection campaign next year and possibly a 2024 presidential run.

Governor DeSantis, a conservative darling and close ally of Donald Trump, earned praise from Republicans for resisting lockdowns and pressing to keep kids in school — however, more than 32,000 Floridians have died from the pandemic and this week the state became the first in the country to have more than 1,000 cases of Covid variants. The spring breakers and DeSantis decision is only going to worsen the situation.

Florida over the past three weeks has only seen a slight increase in newly reported Covid-19 infections. The seven-day average rate of new infections as of Tuesday was 5.84 percent, which is up from 5.73 percent on March 2, according to an analysis of daily reports published by the Florida Department of Health.

Democrats in the state, determined to bounce back after Republicans flipped seats in the state Legislature last year, are also capitalizing on the Spring break confusion to hammer the governor. Broward County Mayor Steve Geller, a Democrat, this week accused DeSantis of ignoring his requests for help in planning for the crowds of tourists that were anticipated in January. Geller ended up consulting with federal health agencies, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control as Broward County brokered a spring break enforcement plan with the City of Fort Lauderdale.

“Governor Ron DeSantis told us we cannot find the bars, and then nothing,” Geller said, adding that just like the governor, Broward and Fort Lauderdale are eager to revive the economy after more than a year of uncertainty that forced many bars and restaurants to close.

“We had to do something to try and help, so I started working with the CDC,” Geller said.

Democrat Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings also took matters into his own hands after he said demand for the Covid-19 vaccine had dropped at a vaccination site in the county convention center for several weeks. Demings dropped the age limit at the convention center to 40 even though the latest executive order signed by DeSantis limits shots to people who are 50 years old and older. Staffers at the site filled 7,000 appointments in 13 minutes, Demings told reporters during a Monday news conference.

DeSantis said last week that Demings’ plan to drop the age was not his decision, though Demings said he’s not worried about the backlash from Tallahassee.

“Those are just words he’s using, you know, so we will move beyond that,” Demings said. “This is about the life, health, and safety of individuals in our community.”

But the most dramatic news came over the weekend, when this year’s revelers brought guns, incited street brawls, and made everyday life impossible for Miami Beach’s roughly 90,000 residents. Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said the city was happy when DeSantis left emergency restrictions such as beach closures and mask mandates to the localities. But, Gelber said, DeSantis also failed to consider the consequences of bringing millions of visitors to one of the few warm-weather vacation destinations in the country.

“Well, I’m not a fan of the way he’s handled this,” Gelber said. “When you have a sense of the chaos here, no one — not one of the visitors — are thinking about wearing a mask.”

When asked about the lax Spring Break support from the state, DeSantis spokesperson Meredith Beatrice said the governor’s office sent Florida Highway Patrol troopers and Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents to Miami and Miami Beach.

Gelber said Miami Beach ended up using local code enforcement and an 8 p.m. emergency curfew order to restore order after the weekend’s mayhem, though local community leaders criticized the authorities for cracking down on the predominantly Black crowd and ignoring their white counterparts. The two causeways connecting the city with the mainland are also restricted at night to local traffic.

“I don’t know what else we could have done but close everything down, which is what we did,” Gelber said. “It’s not something you typically do, which is shut the causeways and create a curfew.

“It’s so unusual because it’s all we had available to us,” Gelber said.

COVID 19 vaccine eligibility lowered to 50 years – relief for many

On Friday, Governor DeSantis announced that he is planning to lower the COVID-19 eligibility to the age of 50 from Monday. The governor visions the J&J vaccine shipment for the coming weeks. That followed the state lowering the eligibility age to 60 this week, down from 65.

“We think we’ve done pretty well this week with the 60 to 64,” DeSantis told reporters. “But, quite frankly, we think that even on current vaccine allotments that opening it up will be good.”

This move marks a development in Governor DeSantis’s “Seniors First” vaccine strategy. The strategy, which originally conflicted with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, prioritizes the elderly.

“I think we’ve had a huge response from seniors,” Governor DeSantis said, calling it a relief for many.

Florida is approaching a 70% COVID 19 vaccination rate among seniors, but the demand is slowing down. And he expects fewer members from younger age groups to want a vaccine. Already, the age to 60 to 64 has shown “relatively modest” compared to seniors, perhaps because those who really wanted a show because of comorbidities already had access.

Appointments were taking several hours to fill rather than the usual minutes.

“There’s just a certain critical mass of seniors that really want it,” DeSantis said.

The Governor had mused about dropping the age to 55 in prior public appearances. But dropping the age to 50 would open it up to a larger segment of the state, which DeSantis and Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz said the state has the capacity to handle.

The state is expecting to receive 420,000 doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID 19 vaccine formula next week. However, zero Johnson & Johnson COVID 19 vaccine shipments are slated for the following week. Still, the Governor said that could change.

“I think what’s happening is this is a dynamic situation,” Governor DeSantis said. “I think it’s very possible that we do get some J&J.” Unlike Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines, except when the winter storm across the South delayed a Moderna shipment a week, J&J shipments haven’t been arriving on a weekly basis

DeSantis and Moskowitz also highlighted the state’s effort to vaccinate underserved communities, including through a door-to-door initiative in minority communities. Officials will have knocked on 35,000 doors by the end of the day to signed people up for appointments. In some communities, officials are even offering vaccines directly at the door.

That program has led to about a 10% success rate, Moskowitz said. And likely wouldn’t move the needle broadly, but would help reach low-income communities.

“There are people obviously in the minority community that have transportation issues. They might not have a car or they share a car,” Moskowitz said. “There are education issues, so when we come to the door, we educate them about the program. There are historical hesitancy issues.”

COVID 19 – Floridians to get vaccinated if they desire

COVID 19 vaccine is now optional if the governor gets his way with it. After his vaccine controversy, here is another huge statement that is going viral.

Florida residents who plan to attend concerts and major sporting events in the pretty Sunshine State will not have to show proof that they have received the COVID 19 vaccine if Governor Ron DeSantis gets his way. The European Union recently announced its “Digital Green Certificate”. This would allow those who are fully COVID 19 vaccinated to travel freely across the bloc, Governor Ron DeSantis cautioned against so-called “vaccine passports.”

On Thursday, Governor DeSantis said that “I just want to make very clear in Florida, we are not doing any vaccine passports. All those experts said that it was a bad idea. I think it’s a bad idea and so that will not happen. And so folks should get vaccinated, if they want to, we’ll obviously provide that, but under no circumstances will the state be asking you to show proof of vaccination, and I don’t think private companies should be doing that either,”.

Moreover, he said each Floridian should decide for themselves whether they get the vaccine and what types of activities or events they’re comfortable attending.

“To start going down the road of vaccine passports, I mean, you have some of these states saying to go to a sporting event, you have to show either a negative test or a vaccine proof. I think you just got to make decisions. If you want to go to an event, go to an event. If you don’t, don’t. But to be requiring people to provide all this proof, that’s not how you get society back to normal so we’re rejecting any vaccine passports here in the state of Florida,” Governor DeSantis said.

On Thursday, Governor Ron DeSantis had a discussion with Dr. Scott Atlas, professor Sunetra Gupta, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and Dr. Martin Kulldorf and they all disagreed with the idea of vaccine passports and said it could do more harm than good.

“The vaccine hesitancy data show that the people who are hesitant to take vaccines actually tend to be the working-class people, poor, poor people, minority populations. We’re going to then turn around and say, ‘You have to have a vaccine passport to participate in American life,’ it’s going to be a new vaccine Jim Crow. It’s a huge, huge mistake that will undermine trust in public health, and I think it’s just morally, it’s just morally wrong,” Bhattacharya, from Stanford University, said.

The Biden administration says it is up to the private sector and nonprofits to figure out how Americans can demonstrate that they have been vaccinated or tested. However, President Biden did ask for unity and corporation to fight the virus.

“It’s not the role of the government to hold that data and to do that,” Andy Slavitt, a White House virus-response adviser, said this week. “It needs to be private, the data should be secure, the access to it should be free, it should be available both digitally and in paper and in multiple languages.”

The idea isn’t new. On its destinations page, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists each country and their vaccine requirements. Many ask for travelers to show proof that they’ve been inoculated against yellow fever, malaria, and other diseases.

Hospitality workers are important: Tourists tell DeSantis

Hospitality workers need to be prioritized. On Friday, Central Florida tourism industry leaders asked Governor Ron DeSantis to include their employees in the next round of priorities for vaccine shots. They argue that front-line tourism workers need to be protected from the COVID-19 virus in order to make the economy emerge.

The Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association, Visit Orlando, and the International Drive Chamber of Commerce each wrote to DeSantis Friday urging him to consider the state’s largest — and hardest-hit — industry when deciding who should be considered critical employees for COVID-19 shots at state-run vaccine centers.

CFHLA President Robert Agrusa wrote in his letter to DeSantis that, “Hospitality and Tourism are critical to the success of Florida’s economy — with 1.6 million Floridians, and nearly 500,000 Central Florida residents being employed by the industries in 2019 — according to research conducted by Tourism Economics and VISIT FLORIDA,”.

He further said that; “By ensuring hospitality and lodging employees are prioritized for vaccination under Phase 1c, it will help our region promote the safety of our destination to millions of eager travelers who — in peak travel years — have generated over $90 billion in economic impact for the state.”

Visit Orlando’s letter was co-signed by the organization’s Board Chair Brian Comes and President Casandra Matej.

They note, “This request is in line with the roll-out protocol listed on the CDC website, which also includes traveler accommodations personnel in the Phase 1c category as a prioritized group essential to continuing our country’s critical functions.”

A particularly hard-hit region in Central Florida. It is among the tourism-economy-heavy regions of Florida particularly hard hit by the economic collapse of the coronavirus crisis last spring and has been the slowest to recover. While Florida’s unemployment rate had softened to 6.1% by the end of the year, the jobless rate was still 7.2% in Orange County, and 8.7% in Osceola County where many lower-wage tourism and hospitality workers live.

Agrusa said other hotels and tourism associations around the state are sending similar letters requesting hospitality workers be recognized as priorities for vaccines.

According to experts, it may take years to fully recover the hospitality industry. However, getting hospitality staff vaccinated could speed that up both by assuring their health and safety and by sending a message nationally that the hotels are safe, industry leaders argued.

Agrusa pointed out in the letter that the hotel industry has been doing its part in the battle against the coronavirus.

“Since March 2020, hotel properties have been utilized as a part of Florida’s initial COVID-19 testing strategy and are now continuing to serve as vaccine distribution locations. Hotels across the state have served as temporary lodging to house medical workers and other first responders, and hospitality and lodging employees have remained on the front lines of this pandemic for over a year,” he wrote.

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