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Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Local health leaders aren't tell school districts what they can do

Ugh

Sigh

Okay, deep breaths. School districts are being told to rely on local health leaders to help guide their decisions, but Florida Today is reporting that local health departments can't or won't. playing politics with the pandemic is going to get people killed.

From Florida Today, 

When the order for all brick-and-mortar schools to open in August came down from Tallahassee on July 6, the state apparently gave worried school districts an out. Reopenings were "subject to advice and orders" of state health officials and "local departments of health," the document said.
It also said: "Absent these directives, the day-to-day decision to open or close a school must always rest locally with the board or executive most closely associated with a school."
The wording led school boards in at least three counties to believe they needed to seek advice on the safety of opening from their local health officials, many of whom served on local reopening task forces and worked closely with district leaders to craft their plans.
At least one county health leader apparently thought so, too. Dr. Alina Alonso, director of the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County, on July 6 told the Palm Beach school district's health advisory committee the situation there was too dangerous to reopen schools. Based on her guidance, the committee — and later, the Palm Beach School Board — agreed to keep campuses closed.
But days later, Alonso refused to put her recommendation in writing, the Palm Beach Post reported.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the Orange County School Board on Tuesday vented at local health chief Dr. Raul Pino for his refusal to advise them on the same question.
In Brevard County, too, school board members have been denied local guidance on whether it is safe to open schools. At the July 9 workshop, Seibert told School Board Chairwoman Misty Belford the local DOH "cannot make that decision."
https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/07/20/health-officials-wont-or-cant-say-if-schools-safe-open/5456874002/

In some of our largest county's health departments are not helping because either they can't or don't want to.

Florida has politicized health and that will cost lives.

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