Florida’s announcement that it would lift vaccination requirements in public schools next year was a particularly hard blow to Elizabeth. Her 11-year-old daughter has a rare immunodeficiency disease and requires biweekly plasma infusions to provide some protection from the disease.
However, she can still take 50 days off from school during the school year. And Elizabeth worries that declining vaccination rates will make the situation even worse.
“Removing the mandate is telling people that we don’t care whether they get vaccinated or not. So why would parents of healthy children want to get vaccinated?” she asked. “They need to do it for other people who may be at risk.”
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Lapad announced in September that the state would no longer require school-age children to receive vaccines to protect against varicella, hepatitis B, HiB and streptococcus starting in January.
Epidemiologists have warned that the lack of mandates could prompt a resurgence of long-gone diseases, hurting local economies.
Elizabeth, who asked that only her first name be used due to privacy concerns, said she would “love to move back” to Massachusetts, where she previously lived, but her extended family lives in the Lake Worth area.
“My child support system is in place for now,” she said. “We have to deal with life here.”
Sonya Rasmussen, an infectious disease physician who worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 20 years, said vaccines are a victim of their own success in effectively eliminating diseases from measles to polio.
“I think the vaccines have been so successful that people think they don’t need them anymore, and I think that’s where the concern is,” she said.
“I’m worried [that] “Withdrawal of these requirements will result in the re-emergence of these diseases that have not been seen for decades,” she added.
At a press conference earlier this fall, Lapad likened vaccination requirements to slavery and said the repeal was meant to restore parental rights. The Surgeon General admitted that he had not made any predictions about the impact the measures would have on public health.
“We’re not taking vaccines away from anyone. If they want vaccines, they can get as many vaccines as they want, and if they don’t want vaccines, parents should have the ability and authority to decide what they put in their children’s bodies,” he said in an interview with CNN shortly after the announcement.
“So do we need to analyze whether it is appropriate for parents to be able to decide what they put in their children’s bodies? There is no need to analyze that,” he added.
Jason Salemi, director of epidemiology at the University of South Florida, said the risks are enormous.
“When herd immunity falls below, [95 percent]”Of course we are concerned about the risk of an outbreak,” he said. “Removing the requirement would increase the risk of exposure for people who may be immunocompromised.”
He noted that children with cancer may be at higher risk of developing the disease, adding that children who live in multigenerational families can also spread the disease to older people.
“These different diseases that vaccines protect against can start to spread to people outside of school,” Salemi continued.
Even President Trump has suggested that Florida should be “careful” about straying too far from the status quo when it comes to vaccine mandates.
“It’s a very tough position,” he said of Ladapo’s announcement. “Look, there are vaccines that work. They’re just pure and simple efficacy. They’re not controversial at all. I think these vaccines should be used, otherwise some people will get infected and put others at risk.”
But Ladapo’s movement is not without its supporters. This is consistent with the general skepticism about vaccines promoted by Trump administration Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who once led an anti-vaccine legal group.
Martin Kulldorff, chairman of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), said this week that a mandate is “not necessary.”
“ACIP should make recommendations based on what we think is best for children. I don’t think we should be involved in mandating vaccines at all. That’s not our role,” he told Politico.
Mr. Trump and other Republicans in Washington have expressed some displeasure with Florida’s plan, but Mr. Ladapo and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis have shown no signs of changing course.
Simone Gold, a Florida-based emergency physician and president of America’s Frontline Doctors, a right-wing group known for opposing COVID-19 safety protocols, hopes Florida will set a precedent for other countries to lift vaccination requirements.
“I think imposing a mandate is the worst thing we can do to the American people…The disease they’re telling you about is so bad that it’s a terrible thing that you need to be vaccinated to protect against.” [yourself is] Not true. The vast majority of measles cases are no big deal,” she said.
“I’m very much against the government forcing health care on people,” she added.
Gold was sentenced to 60 days in prison for the Jan. 6 riot that stormed the Capitol. She was among those pardoned at the beginning of Trump’s second term.
Debbie Bresnak of Delray Beach, who is part of the Vaccine Free Child Facebook group, said she faced criticism from pediatricians when she chose not to vaccinate her children, now in their 20s.
She said parents who want to vaccinate their children don’t have to worry about what other parents are doing.
“People who are vaccinated don’t have to worry about people who are not vaccinated, as long as the vaccine is effective,” she says. “It doesn’t mean I don’t want people to get the vaccine, because if they want it they can get it. But they need to be educated.”
Some outbreaks, like the measles outbreak in Texas earlier this year, have disproportionately affected unvaccinated children, resulting in nearly 100 hospitalizations and the deaths of two school-aged children.
Low immunization rates were a major factor, with only 14% of kindergarteners in West Texas receiving the measles vaccine, according to the Brown University School of Public Health.
Public health concerns and economic impacts spread throughout the community.
According to the American Freedom Forum, a center-right think tank that conducts economic and financial research, the outbreak has cost Texas more than $35 million in direct medical and public health response costs and indirect social losses.
The outbreak in Florida could make people outside the state think twice about vacationing in the state. In 2024, the Sunshine State had 143 million visitors, making it one of the most visited destinations in the country.
Former Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkeis, who served under Mr. DeSantis during much of the coronavirus pandemic, criticized Mr. DeSantis’ successor over plans to change vaccine mandates.
He said the impact on students like Elizabeth’s children should be kept in mind.
“It is essential to recognize that demanding individual freedom and choice regarding vaccines tramples on the freedoms and rights of others,” he wrote. “By requiring vaccinations for entry into public schools, we can vaccinate large numbers of children and protect underserved and immunocompromised children.”
Lana Alissa, president of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, echoed this sentiment, calling the lack of a mandate an “unwarranted” intrusion on the freedom of families like Elizabeth’s.
“These are vulnerable people. They won’t be able to go to amusement parks, theaters and conveniences.” [or] “It’s a grocery store,” she said.[They’ll] You never know who will give them the deadly virus. ”
“We’re talking about lives being lost here,” she added.
