Florida chiropractor defends writing medical exemptions for students from mask mandates

His local school board has now decided to specifically exclude chiropractors from the list of qualified medical professionals able to give masking exemptions. They now allow medical exemptions from licensed doctors, osteopaths or advanced nurse practitioners as of Wednesday, after a motion that passed on Tuesday in the afternoon.

The school board sent a letter out to all parents stating that "the school board’s face mask policy mandates that students, employees, visitors, and vendors wear face masks unless they meet certain exceptions or qualify for legally-required accommodations."

According to local outlet ABC 7, Dr. Busch agreed to be interviewed, and told the media in his own defense:

"Every evaluation that I performed was very specific and I performed them in my scope of practice. I had to stay very specific to the diagnoses that were in my wheelhouse, there are plenty that weren’t."

Busch then went on to state that he always turned people away as was appropriate.

"I have not directly heard from the school district [regarding the change to the medical exemption rules], but I am more than happy to sit down with the school district. I’m not trying to do something that’s shady, irrefutable, unethical. I’ll sit down, I would be happy to come to them."

Busch also discussed the possibility of inviting qualified medical doctors to his office in order for them to give the appropriate sign-off on mask exemptions as needed.

A federal judge has allowed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's ban on mask mandates to proceed. The Associated Press reported on Thursday that Judge K. Michael Moore in Miami denied a request by parents for a preliminary injunction against an executive order that DeSantis issued in July "that served as the basis for the Florida Department of Health issuing a rule that required school districts to allow parents to opt out of any student mask mandates."