TRAGIC

Florida Teacher’s Cancer Meant She Couldn’t Get Vaxxed. Now She’s Dead of COVID.

Kelly Peterson was undergoing treatment for leukemia but she was required to teach in-person at the school, despite the lack of a mask mandate.

A 41-year-old teacher in Florida who was unable to get the coronavirus vaccine died Monday of COVID-19 after her family says she caught the virus in her classroom. Kelly Peterson’s doctor thought the side effects of the vaccine would be too hard on her while she underwent treatment for leukemia, so she did not receive the preventative. Peterson taught fifth grade at Lake Shipp Elementary in Winter Haven, Florida, and was required to teach in-person when the school year started. Polk County schools did not implement a mask mandate. Her sister Christin told local outlets, “Because her leukemia was so bad at this point, their concern was by getting the vaccine that potentially could put too much stress on her body. She had voiced concerns many times that if she contracted COVID, she was afraid that it would kill her, and unfortunately that’s what happened.”