Florida poised to lift vaccine mandate, including for children
Florida could become the first US state to abandon mandatory vaccinations, which Joseph Ladapo, the top health official in the southeastern Republican state, has called "slavery ." The move would even apply to schoolchildren.
"The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with Governor [Ron DeSantis] , will work to end every last vaccine mandate," the surgeon general said Wednesday, September 3, during a speech at Grace Christian School in Valrico, in the center of the state.
Since Donald Trump's return to the White House, the United States, under the leadership of Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., has initiated a major overhaul of its vaccination policy, for example by restricting access to Covid-19 vaccines and cutting funding for the development of new ones.
"Who am I, standing here before you, to tell you what to put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body? I don't have that right. Your body is a gift from God," also said Joseph Ladapo, known for his opposition to Covid-19 vaccines.
Criticism of vaccines—which are widely credited with eradicating diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and hepatitis B—has grown in recent years, fueled by false claims such as those linking them to autism. But conservatives have historically been more inclined to seek exemptions on religious grounds.
"A servile capitulation"This year, the United States experienced its worst measles outbreak in more than three decades, with about 1,400 cases concentrated in an ultraconservative Mennonite community in Texas.
Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, called Florida's announcement "a slavish capitulation to the nihilistic anti-vaccine movement." "Vaccines are safe, effective, and save lives," said epidemiologist Syra Madad, who said eliminating mandatory vaccination in schools "puts children and millions of other people at risk."
On Wednesday, more than a thousand current and former employees of the US Department of Health and Human Services signed a letter to lawmakers demanding the resignation of Robert Kennedy Jr., who has been accused of "endangering" the public.
Formation of a “health alliance”Across the country, California and two other western states responded Wednesday by announcing the formation of a "health alliance" in response to last week's dismissal of Susan Monarez, who was head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the nation's top health agency.
Accusing the Trump administration of "politicizing science," Democratic leaders in California, Oregon, and Washington said in a statement that they want to provide their residents with vaccination recommendations and information on vaccine effectiveness and safety "developed by trusted scientists, physicians, and other public health officials."
