Controversy in Miami over private school that will not employ vaccinated teachers

MIAMI.- Miami private school banned its teachers and other staff from injecting the vaccine against Covid-19, citing unsupported arguments – according to scientists – according to which contact with inoculated persons would be harmful to children.

Leila Centner, co-founder of Centner Academy in Miami, wrote in a letter to his staff that Vaccinated teachers will not be allowed near children. Those who were not vaccinated were required to do so only at the end of the school year.

“Reports have emerged from unvaccinated people who have been negatively affected by interactions with vaccinated people ”, says Centner, in a false claim according to scientists.

The announcement, first reported by The New York Times, stunned some parents, teachers and medical experts as it was presented as fact without citing any scientific evidence.

Leila Centner, co-founder of the school with her husband David Centner, warned that people who have been vaccinated “could pass something on from their bodies” that could harm others, especially those who have been vaccinated. “Reproductive Systems, Fertility, and Normal Growth and Development in Women and Children.”

“There is no evidence to suggest that the vaccine causes a person to transmit the SARS-CoV-2 virus”, said Jamie Scott, professor emeritus and former research professor in molecular immunity at Simon Fraser University in Canada.

“This is impossible, since all vaccines cause cells to produce only the spike protein and no other component of the virus,” the expert told AFP Fact Check, the AFP fact-check team. .

Leila Centner adds in her letter that “thousands” of menstrual cycles have been affected by the vaccine and that it has caused a “366%” increase in miscarriages., of which there is no evidence either.

For this statement, the co-founder of the neighborhood school Design district of Miami is supported by an article published by a portal called The Daily Expose.

This media is classified as “Conspiracy and pseudoscience” since it publishes “unverified information not always supported by evidence”, according to the site mediabiasfactcheck.com, which monitors the seriousness and reliability of the media.

AFP Fact Check also refuted the latter claim in February. “No evidence indicated an increase in miscarriages after Covid-19 vaccines and there were no disturbing patterns of notifications (of miscarriages),” said a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from the United States.

The private school, which teaches elementary and middle school, already had a specific vaccination policy before the pandemic. On his website, he specifies that it is not compulsory for his students to be vaccinated.

Agencia AFP

THE NATION