'Public health disaster': Florida Republicans blasted for 'reckless and dangerous' policy

03 September

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaking at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 16, 2024 (Image: Shutterstock)

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has moved to abolish all school vaccine mandates, making Florida the first state in the nation to reject the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines. He declared that every vaccine mandate “drips with disdain and slavery,” according to The Washington Post.

The CDC issues a recommended schedule of vaccines, first published three decades ago. These are not mandates but guidelines. Each state separately establishes which vaccinations must be given to children to attend public schools. Massachusetts was the first to require vaccinations, in the mid-1800s.

Now, Florida will become the “first state to completely withdraw from a practice credited with boosting vaccination rates and controlling the spread of infectious diseases.”

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis supports Ladapo’s decision, but noted that while he can remove some required vaccines, others would require legislation.

The Post reports that Ladapo also “called for a halt to using mRNA coronavirus vaccines last year, citing debunked claims that the shots could contaminate a patient’s DNA. He became the first statewide health official to urge communities to stop adding fluoride to drinking water, a practice widely credited for improving oral health.”

The first to be removed from the mandated list are vaccines against preventable diseases, including measles, mumps, chicken pox, polio and hepatitis, Ladapo said, according to The Guardian.

The Miami Herald added that “Vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives in the last 50 years, according to the World Health Organization. The vast majority of the lives saved were infants.”

Sarah Despres, a former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) official, responded to Ladapo’s claims of “disdain and slavery,” by writing: “Really? Tell that to the immunocompromised 3rd grader just trying to go to school without dying of measles.”

Florida Democratic state Representative Anna V. Eskamani warned, “Ending vaccine mandates is reckless and dangerous. It will drive down immunization rates & open the door to outbreaks of preventable diseases, putting children, seniors, and vulnerable Floridians at risk. This is a public health disaster in the making for the Sunshine State.”

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