Private school orders vaccinated teachers to stay away from students

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A co-founder of a private school in Florida in the United States recently ordered vaccinated teachers to stay away from students, citing questionable antivaccine claims.

Leila Centner, the co-founder of the Centner Academy in Miami, sent out an email claiming “reports have surfaced recently of non-vaccinated people being negatively impacted by interacting with people who have been vaccinated,” as per The New York Times yesterday, April 26.

For this reason, Centner gave employees three options regarding vaccination. First, they must inform the school if they had already gotten vaccinated so they could be kept physically away from students.

The second option requires employees to inform the school if they plan on getting vaccinated before the end of the school year “as we cannot allow recently vaccinated people to be near our students until more information is known,” as quoted by the newspaper.

The last option tells employees to just get vaccinated after the school year ends. However, those who will get vaccinated over the summer will not be allowed to return until clinical trials on the vaccine are completed or “if a position is still available at that time.”

Among the false claims cited by the school is one saying vaccinated people “may be transmitting something from their bodies” that is harmful to women’s reproductive organs, Centner’s publicist said in a statement acquired by the newspaper.

“We are not 100 percent sure the Covid injections are safe and there are too many unknown variables for us to feel comfortable at this current time,” the publicist was quoted as saying.

Centner was also noted by the newspaper as being known for posting anti-vaccine sentiments on Facebook. Her school also recently invited known anti-vax personalities to talk to students.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known antivaccine activist, was invited to speak to students last February, while earlier this month, Centner Academy hosted a Zoom talk with Dr. Lawrence Palevsky, a pediatrician frequently cited by anti-vax activists, according to the report.

The Centner Academy, which Centner founded with her husband, David Centner, opened in 2019 for students in prekindergarten to Grade 8. On its website, the school promotes support for “medical freedom from mandated vaccines.”

Established health authorities including the US Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated that COVID-19 vaccines used in the US are safe and effective, the report said. Ian Biong /ra

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