The Centner Academy, a private school in Miami, has informed parents that their children must quarantine at home for 30 days if they have gotten jabs for the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a letter sent to moms and dads, the school's Chief Financial Officer made it clear that vaccinated children will need to stay home for a month for each of the shots, including boosters. They may be allowed back to the school only if they are "healthy and symptom-free."
The school also suggested that parents wait to get their kids vaccinated until the summer to reduce the chances of "shedding" onto others. The officials apparently believe claims that those who have had the COVID-19 vaccine could shed some components that could trigger an infection.
The memo comes as the White House informed governors to prepare for the upcoming rollout of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children between 5 to 11 years old by the end of October or early November. Pfizer jabs for 12 to 17 years old kids had been authorized for emergency use since the summer.
Read Also: Routine Childhood Vaccinations Dropped During the Pandemic, Causing Concerns for Parents and Doctors
What is Vaccine Shedding?
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), vaccine shedding refers to the discharged vaccine components outside of the body if there are live but weakened components of the virus. Many common vaccines -- such as chickenpox, measles, rotavirus, mumps, and rubella -- have live pathogens that must be replicated inside the body to generate an immune response.
"Shedding" doesn't equate to transmission in most cases, except for the oral polio vaccines, which have not been used nor distributed in the country for decades. None of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. contain any pathogen, which means that vaccine shedding is impossible.
But social media has been littered with false information about COVID-19 vaccine shedding, prompting The Centner Academy to tell its school community to limit interaction with the vaccinated. In April, the private institution also discouraged its educators and staff from getting vaccinated or risked losing their jobs.
In a statement to NBC News South Florida, Leila Centner, the co-founder of the academy, said that there are "too many unknown variables" to ascertain that the COVID-19 vaccine is 100 percent safe. On the other hand, David Centner also issued a statement to emphasize that they want to "err on the side of caution" when it comes to the school community's health until there are enough "definitive and scientifically proven studies" about the vaccines.
Expert Call out The Centner Academy
Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease expert, said that the letter to the parents had been written by someone who has no understanding of science. She called out the school for its destructive and misleading claims, which could hurt people who are not well-versed in science.
Some parents told a local news network that they had decided to pull out and transfer their children to other schools when The Centner Academy first made their vaccination policy known last spring. However, a few parents who have remained with the school because they have paid the $30,000 outright said that they were asked to sign a document preventing them from speaking to the press about the school policies.
