Closeup of vaccine bottle with syringe and needle for immunization on vintage medical background (Adobe Stock)
Some parents, teachers and medical experts in Leon County are extremely concerned about Florida’s vaccine lift for schoolchildren.
Florida’s decision to eliminate vaccine mandates comes after Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, joined by Gov. Ron DeSantis, announced in September the state would move to eliminate all vaccine mandates for school children. Ladapo called the existing rules “immoral” and equated them to “slavery.”
Shakita Bailey, a concerned parent in Tallahassee, is one of many uneasy about the implications of the change.
“I don’t agree with the mandate removal,” she said. “Vaccines have done a lot with eradicating things that can be potentially very dangerous … If you’re going to let your kid go to school unvaccinated, now that puts my kid at risk.”
Bailey’s concerns are rooted in a reality many families share, and day-to-day distractions can prevent parents from staying informed on policy shifts.
“Honestly, I don’t even know if everybody’s even aware of it,” she said. “Sometimes you rely on the school a little too much to protect your child.”
From a medical standpoint, the decision could have even bigger consequences.
Dr. Ricardo Bailey, a family physician with Bailey Family Health in Tallahassee, warned that the removal of mandates could set a dangerous precedent.
“It was an active step to decline vaccines before, now, the default is not to get them,” he said. “We won’t see the effects right now, but as more unvaccinated kids move through the school system, we could see diseases we haven’t seen in decades, like measles, make a comeback.”
The risk of outbreaks is not just hypothetical.
Rashad Martin, a healthcare management student at Florida A&M University and pharmacy worker, recalled a March 2024 outbreak of over 400 measles cases in Texas and New Mexico related to low vaccination rates.
“Kids are germy,” he said. “They don’t know boundaries. It could be scary in classrooms, especially for students with weaker immune systems.”
Educators in Leon County are also voicing concerns.
Martin mentioned a professor with a child in the district who fears a rise in preventable diseases in schools.
“She studies the data and the numbers don’t lie,” Martin said
Martin suggests communities push back against the mandate with facts.
“Show the real numbers,” he said. “People respond better to raw data than opinions.”