At a news conference at NeoCity Academy in Kissimmee on Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made the case that parents should make the decision whether their children should quarantine or attend school after being exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, but are asymptomatic.
“Quarantining healthy students is incredibly damaging. It’s also incredibly disruptive,” DeSantis said during the news conference.
The governor’s new surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, reinforced the governor’s position by issuing a new rule on that takes masking and quarantine decisions out of school officials’ hands and moves it to families to decide. The new rule replaces an emergency order that has been in place since August for school districts in Florida.
“I trust parents and families, and I don’t think they are going to go around lying,” DeSantis said at the press conference at NeoCity Academy.
The revised rule also sets new protocols for students who are symptomatic or test positive for COVID-19.
One protocol in the rule states that students can go back to school if they test negative for COVID-19 and are asymptomatic. Another protocol says that students can return to school ten days after becoming symptomatic or showing a positive test result if they have not had fevers for 24 hours and other symptoms are improving.
“What’s been happening over the last year, is people are taking the science and misrepresenting it. They’ve been using the science and it’s been unclear when the discussion about the science ends and how you feel about the science and what you want people to do with the science begins,” said Florida Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that students who are not fully vaccinated and are exposed to someone with COVID-19 should get tested and be quarantined at home for 14 days after exposure, regardless of their test results.
