In Miami, a private school has implemented a quarantine policy to have students vaccinated against COVID-19 stay home for 30 days after each dose.
Centner Academy sent a letter to parents urging them to hold off until the summer if they plan on getting their children vaccinated, WSVN reported.
The letter also told parents that the mandatory quarantine period would take place if they chose to get their children vaccinated. This announcement comes months after the school said it would not employ anyone who is vaccinated.
"Because of the potential impact on other students and our school community, vaccinated students will need to stay at home for 30 days post-vaccination for each dose and booster they receive and may return to school after 30 days as long as the student is healthy and symptom-free," the letter said, according to WSVN.
The school said it will force students to quarantine because "there will be time for the potential transmission or shedding onto others to decrease."
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According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccine shedding can only occur when a vaccination contains a live virus, which none of the COVID-19 vaccines authorized by the FDA do.
The school defended its policy, saying that "Centner Academy's policy was enacted as a prudent precautionary measure after much thoughtful deliberation," Newsweek reported.
The school went on to say, "Our top priorities have always been our students' well-being and their sense of safety within our educational environment. We will continue to act in accordance with these priorities. The email that we sent to families was grounded in these priorities."
WSVN spoke with Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease expert at Florida International University, who said the policy is "fiction."
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"What happens 30 days after they get vaccinated? What kind of nonsense is this?" Marty said. "Where did they get that? There's nothing in the recommendations to that... They made that up. That's science fiction, not even science fiction because it's pure fiction."
She also said that it is incredibly misleading information coming out of a school of all places.
In Florida, 58.9% of the population is vaccinated, and nationwide, 12-17 remain the lowest vaccinated among all eligible age groups. Some states like Minnesota have implemented incentive programs to get younger people vaccinated; however, they remain the least vaccinated.
