JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A new report suggests Florida could lose billions of dollars in economic activity over the next decade if a plan to loosen school vaccine requirements makes it across the finish line this legislative session.<\/p>\n
The proposal comes as Northeast Florida is seeing a spike in measles cases.<\/p>\n
There have been eight cases this year<\/a> in the region this year compared to just one in all of 2025.<\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n The bill<\/a> allows parents to exempt their children from vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella, polio, whooping cough, and diphtheria by signing off on a conscientious objection form. <\/p>\n Currently, exemptions are only offered for religious reasons.<\/p>\n Most of the backlash to the bill has revolved around public health concerns, but the new report details potential economic consequences as well.<\/p>\n The analysis conducted by the Regional Economic Consulting Group<\/a> found the bill could cause the state to see a $9 billion reduction in GDP and 64,000 fewer jobs over the next ten years.<\/p>\n Jacksonville alone could see a $700 million reduction in economic activity.<\/p>\n Matthew Moore with RECG worked on the analysis, which was commissioned by Florida Families for Vaccines<\/a>. <\/p>\n He explained that preventable deaths are the main driver of those economic losses.<\/p>\n \u201cAbout 90-plus percent of the impact comes from the premature mortality. And so, it\u2019s a very small rate, but it\u2019s a very large number,\u201d said Moore.<\/p>\n Other contributing factors include reduced tourism and reduced productivity resulting from parents taking care of their sick children.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the recovery periods for some of these illnesses are quite prolonged,\u201d said Moore. \u201dSo, it\u2019s not just a matter of a day or two, and you\u2019re back. It\u2019s a week, or it\u2019s two weeks, or it\u2019s four weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n Moore noted the report is not intended to take sides in the vaccine debate.<\/p>\n Instead, the goal is to equip lawmakers with as much data as possible to help them make the most informed policy decision.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if this number is too large and it creates a situation where you have to go a different direction, and you come up with a different concept, that\u2019s a net benefit to everyone involved,\u201d said Moore.<\/p>\n The bill is scheduled for its second of three committee hearings in the Senate on Tuesday.<\/p>\n A companion bill in the House has still not been scheduled for its first hearing.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A new report suggests Florida could lose billions of dollars in economic activity over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4482,17348,19709,694,50307,696,47974,6036,42757,2353,1006,3974,79181,17191,38700,2006,64666,79182,79183,3668,12641,28,30,29,40685,41231,79184,571,17192,5078,79185,79186,13781,17194,17195,7967,18686,50315,68021,6319,13324,7970,7973,6035,9255,7352,554,79187,79188,7981,67430,31621,2007,33719,17203,64066,54941],"class_list":{"0":"post-166499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-antibiotic","9":"tag-b","10":"tag-baby","11":"tag-background","12":"tag-biology","13":"tag-blue","14":"tag-bottle","15":"tag-care","16":"tag-chemistry","17":"tag-child","18":"tag-clinic","19":"tag-concept","20":"tag-diabetes","21":"tag-diphtheria","22":"tag-disease","23":"tag-doctor","24":"tag-dose","25":"tag-doses","26":"tag-dosing","27":"tag-drug","28":"tag-equipment","29":"tag-florida","30":"tag-florida-headlines","31":"tag-florida-news","32":"tag-flu","33":"tag-glass","34":"tag-hbv","35":"tag-health","36":"tag-hepatitis","37":"tag-hospital","38":"tag-hpv","39":"tag-hypodermic","40":"tag-illness","41":"tag-immunity","42":"tag-immunization","43":"tag-injection","44":"tag-lab","45":"tag-laboratory","46":"tag-liquid","47":"tag-medical","48":"tag-medication","49":"tag-medicine","50":"tag-needle","51":"tag-patient","52":"tag-rabies","53":"tag-research","54":"tag-science","55":"tag-sharp","56":"tag-sterile","57":"tag-syringe","58":"tag-test","59":"tag-therapy","60":"tag-treatment","61":"tag-vaccination","62":"tag-vaccine","63":"tag-vial","64":"tag-virus"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}