Floridians, including those in schools and daycare facilities, will spend less time in quarantine, and will not be required to wear masks at work or at school under the state’s COVID-19-related guidance unveiled by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo last week. The new guidance also recommends that physicians exercise their individual and clinical judgment, expertise, and knowledge of the patient when they treat them for COVID-related illnesses.
DeSantis said that the new guidance is intended to push back against” unscientific” policies issued by the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
“People want to live freely in Florida, without corporate masking creating a two-tier society and without overbearing isolation for children,” DeSantis said. “We are empowering health care practitioners to follow science, not Fauci’s status quo.”
Under the new guidance employees of any corporation would not be forced to wear a mask at work.
Meanwhile, healthy children in daycare facilities do not need to be quarantined and those who test positive for the COVID-19 virus can return to daycare within five days, no test is required. The choice for a child to wear a mask should be left to a parent.
Also under the new guidance, the Florida Department of Health (DOH) is updating its school isolation rule to reduce student quarantine time from 10 days to five. Masking is optional at parents’ discretion.
Finally, the new state guidance gives health care practitioners the flexibility to make the decision to “treat patients with off-label prescriptions if they determine that it may help the patient and it is something the patient would like to try.”
Under this provision, patients must provide informed consent to try off-label prescriptions.
Since the pandemic’s onset, critics have denounced DeSantis for opposing CDC guidance, but according to Ladapo, the new guidance is intended to reflect the state’s natural immunity and high vaccination rate.
Ladapo was approved to his post by the Florida legislature on Feb. 23 by a vote of 24 to 15.
“The State of Florida has widespread natural and vaccine-induced immunity, (and) evidence suggests that most secondary transmission occurs early on,” he said. “ Our state will continue to make decisions for Floridians rooted in sound science, not fear, whether they are working or in school.”
The new guidelines are posted at Buck the CDC Handout (flgov.com)
