The Florida Senate on Friday held a floor discussion on a bill expanding vaccine exemptions, even though the measure is unlikely to move in the House in the legislative session\u2019s final week.<\/p>\n
Senators amended the bill (SB 1756) to block health care practitioners from receiving kickbacks from vaccine manufacturers and clarify the information provided by the Board of Medicine, including risks, benefits, safety and efficacy, of vaccines when parents opt in or opt out of vaccination.<\/p>\n
The Senate is poised to vote on the bill Monday, but even with those changes, the House hasn\u2019t advanced its version of the bill and is unlikely to take it up with the session scheduled to end March 13.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, House Speaker Daniel Perez said his chamber won\u2019t consider it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a bill that wasn\u2019t heard in the House, it wasn\u2019t heard in the committee process. Obviously, we function differently than the Senate,\u201d Perez said. \u201cA bill that hasn\u2019t moved in the House is not going to be brought up at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, would expand vaccine exemptions for public K-12 schools and create a new \u201cconscience\u201d category for parents to opt out of immunizations.<\/p>\n
Another provision requires health care practitioners who administer vaccines to offer parents an alternative vaccine schedule, and information about the benefits and risks of vaccines to be given to parents at the time of vaccination.<\/p>\n
The bill doesn\u2019t include a key piece of Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 agenda: a complete repeal of all required vaccines to enter K-12 public schools. But it does contain a measure backed by DeSantis allowing pharmacists to provide ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug often prescribed for animals, over-the-counter for adults without a prescription.<\/p>\n
The drug is seen by some as helpful against COVID-19, but medical professionals have warned against its use to combat the virus. Pharmacists would be given immunity from liability under the bill.<\/p>\n
Other bills addressing pieces of DeSantis\u2019 proposal, which would have required doctors to see all patients regardless of vaccination status and to would allow someone who has been harmed by a vaccine to sue the manufacturer never advanced in the Legislature.<\/p>\n
Yarborough\u2019s bill has been one of the most controversial bills this session, with parents\u2019 rights advocates arguing the bill is necessary while health care professionals claiming it will lead to the spread of diseases already kept at bay through vaccines.<\/p>\n
Senate Republicans are split on the issue. Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, warned of the problems this bill could cause, especially among a measles outbreak in the state.<\/p>\n
So far in 2026, the Florida Department of Health has reported 124 measles cases, with the majority stemming from an outbreak at Ave Maria University in Collier County.<\/p>\n
Harrell and Sens. Colleen Burton, R-Lakeland, and Ana Maria Rodriguez, R-Miami, all voted against the bill in prior committee hearings.<\/p>\n
Florida Surgeon General Joe Ladapo and the DOH have already set in motion a rule change that would repeal the vaccine requirements for public K-12 students under the purview of the agency.<\/p>\n
Those include Hepatitis B, varicella (chicken pox), Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida Senate on Friday held a floor discussion on a bill expanding vaccine exemptions, even though the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-181136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181136","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=181136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}