Dismay as Florida seeks to end vaccination protections

Florida intends to become the first US state to end all vaccine mandates, including that children get shots before they attend school, in the latest expression of the undermining of the value of vaccination under the Trump administration.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and Governor Ron DeSantis announced the plan yesterday, saying they would not force anyone to have a vaccine, with Ladapo saying mandates "drip with disdain and slavery" at a press conference.

"Who am I as a government or anyone else, or who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what to do with your body?" he told those attending. "I don't have that right. Your body is a gift from God."

Their stance echoes the stance espoused by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary and well-known vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr, who is overseeing an upheaval in US vaccine policy and is facing increasingly vocal calls to step down.

At the moment, Florida requires several routine childhood vaccines for daycare and preschool, as well as for elementary and secondary public school students, including measles – currently on the increase in the US – mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox, and hepatitis B.

For now, there is no timeline for phasing out the requirements, although, Ladapo vowed to end "every last one of them," ignoring the fact that the decades-old programmes are credited with reducing the burden of potentially life-threatening childhood illnesses.

Both Ladapo and DeSantis are known for taking anti-vaccine positions, with the Governor campaigning for office on the back of a pledge to end COVID-19 shot mandates. Meanwhile, Ladapo has been accused of manipulating a study to try to show COVID-19 vaccines pose a greater health risk than they do and advised parents to send unvaccinated children to school during a measles outbreak.

Michael Osterholm, director at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota and leader of the Vaccine Integrity Project, said in a statement that the "reckless decision" will endanger the health of Florida's children.

"It flies in the face of a mountain of evidence that clearly shows the benefits of vaccinating kids before they enter school, and it makes the entire state less safe to visit or live in," he said. "Every parent of a child who dies or who is hospitalised with a vaccine-preventable disease will know exactly why."

The Florida Education Association also condemned the plan, saying: "When leaders talk about pulling back vaccines, they're talking about disrupting student learning and making schools less safe. State leaders say they care about reducing chronic absenteeism and keeping kids in school - but reducing vaccinations does the opposite, putting our children's health and education at risk."