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Florida Next, officials are moving forward on a proposal to roll back some vaccine mandates for state schoolchildren republican Governor Ron DeSantis Called for the state to become the first state in the nation to eliminate all school vaccination requirements.
Pediatricians, infectious disease physicians and educators have condemned the weakening of vaccines, which for generations have been a cornerstone of public health policy meant to keep children and adults safe from potentially deadly — but preventable — diseases.
experts Warned that ending the mandates could lead to a dangerous resurgence of preventable childhood illnesses and deaths, which would reverse one of the largest advances in public health history.
Dozens of parents, doctors, teachers and lawyers gathered in a hotel conference room panama city beach Friday to testify on a rule change proposed by the Florida Department of Health that would eliminate the requirement for Florida children to receive hepatitis B, varicella and Haemophilus influenzae type b or Hib vaccines in order to attend public or private K-12 schools. The proposal also eliminates the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine requirement for children attending child care facilities.
Other state orders related to vaccines for polio, mumps, tetanus and other diseases are enshrined in Florida law and would require legislative action to withdraw.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who has long clashed with the medical establishment, has called the current requirements in schools and elsewhere an “immoral” intrusion on people’s rights that hinders parents’ ability to make health decisions for their children.
All U.S. states and territories require that children attending child care centers and schools be vaccinated against several diseases, including measles, mumps, polio, tetanus, whooping cough, and chickenpox.
All states give exemptions to children with medical conditions that prevent them from receiving certain vaccines. Most also allow exemptions for religious or other non-medical reasons.
emotional public hearing
Friday’s public hearing turned emotional at times, as parents and activists opposing the mandate proclaimed the importance of individual freedoms, while longtime physicians recalled hospital wards filled with seriously ill children in the years before the widespread availability of vaccines.
Jamie Shainbaum had her legs and fingers amputated after suffering from meningitis as a 20-year-old college student in Texas. She traveled from Brooklyn, New York, to testify in support of the vaccines, recounting her seven-month hospital stay as she grappled with a vaccine-preventable disease and the challenges of living without her organs.
“No one should have to go through this experience,” Shainbaum said.
He added, “What would it be like to learn to use your hands again? Feed yourself? Wipe yourself? This is the reality of what it’s like to survive this way.”
The rise of vaccine skepticism
Vaccination efforts across the country and the world have stalled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen an explosion in vaccine skepticism. Florida’s proposal comes as U.S. Department of Health Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has worked to reshape the country’s vaccine policies to match his long-standing skepticism about the safety and effectiveness of the well-established shots.
Mary Helms, a mother and grandmother from Apalachicola, Florida, expressed her “full support” for rolling back the mandate, referencing Kennedy.
“Medical choice and medical freedom in all respects are God-given and sovereign human rights,” Helms said.
Asked whether the state consulted national medical experts such as the American Academy of Pediatrics on the development of the rule, a representative for the department declined to answer directly and said: “The language of the rule is based on policy based on considerations in favor of parental rights and medical freedom.”
Measles outbreak in South Carolina
Florida’s push comes as South Carolina faces a months-long measles outbreak, almost entirely among school-age children.
State health officials there have said 116 of the 126 cases are in children under 18, with two-thirds of them in children ages 5 to 17.
The outbreak is concentrated in Spartanburg County, where only 90% of students have had all the vaccines they need to remain in school — one of the lowest rates in South Carolina. The state has a religious exemption for vaccines, and nearly all unvaccinated students use it.
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Associated Press writer Jeffrey Collins contributed from Columbia, South Carolina. Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.