moved forward<\/a> in the process to remove the four vaccines that are regulated at the level of the Florida DOH \u200afor public school attendance: hepatitis B, varicella (for chickenpox), Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines.<\/p>\nDTaP, MMR, and Polio \u2013 vaccines that prevent infection from seven other viruses and bacteria including diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (or whooping cough) and measles \u2013 are regulated by Florida statutes and would have a lengthier repeal process because they need to go through the House and the Senate.\u200a<\/p>\n
Burnout<\/p>\n
\u200aAfter two years of working as a general pediatrician at a busy practice in Miami, Dr. Utset decided she needed to shift gears. She’s left daily clinical care. She had missed doing research and teaching, and so now she will be working in a more research-heavy role with some teaching and clinic time mixed in.<\/p>\n
In addition to repeated attempts at changing state and federal policies, Higgins says social media plays a big role in what questions parents are bringing to pediatricians. But more questions don’t necessarily mean fewer kids are getting vaccines, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aBased on the most current data that we have, only around 1% of kids have never had a vaccine by the time they reach two years old,\u201d Higgins says. \u201cNow, it can be time and resource intensive to have these conversations over and over again with parents, it really can lead to fatigue in those conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can’t come to an agreement on what I feel like is the basis for keeping your child healthy \u2013 I think by definition I’ve lost your trust.”<\/p>\n
Dr. Gabriela Garrotte<\/p>\n
Pediatrics is already a field prone to burnout \u2014 with lower reimbursement rates than other specialties, packed schedules and the emotional toll of working with sick children.<\/p>\n
For Dr. Gabriela Garrotte, a primary care physician at Gables Pediatrics in Coral Gables, what has struck her most is the growing mistrust.<\/p>\n
She went into the field because of her passion for prevention, and she sees vaccines as her strongest tool for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf at the end of the day me and my patients, and my patients’ parents, can’t come to an agreement on that, what I feel like is the kind of basis for keeping your child healthy \u2013 I think by definition I’ve lost your trust,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s spoken to several parents who may have vaccinated their first child without hesitation, but now have a lot more questions. She doesn\u2019t mind these questions, she says, but it can be wearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best analogy that I heard about this problem is that what’s happening now is kind of like being a pilot, and every passenger on the plane wants to know what every button on the console does,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I mean, at the end, certainly, if that’s what’s gonna make passengers feel comfortable about flying, then we gotta do it, right? But there are gonna be delays, right? There’s gonna be increased wait, increased frustration among patients waiting with small kids in the office.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also been hard to hold on to a consistent staff because the hours are getting longer and longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have less time to spend with our own children, with our own families, and so all of that, of course, contributes to the burnout that we’re all feeling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u200aIn addition to the longer hours, the complexity of each visit increases. That’s because the differential diagnosis, or the decision tree of what could be causing an illness, is much broader.<\/p>\n
A fever is more serious when you add the possibility of measles or pneumococcal, diseases that in a vaccinated population aren’t really on the radar, for example. Her office recommends all patients receive vaccines according to the schedule \u200apublished by the American Academy of Pediatrics and mandates all school required vaccines<\/p>\n
\u200aSome parents ask to create their own schedule or space out vaccines, and pick and choose which vaccines to give. President Trump’s recent executive order<\/a> called for splitting up the MMR into its component parts, measles, mumps and rubella, which as of now is actually not available as individual vaccines in the United States.<\/p>\nShe counsels against that for three reasons. First, some vaccines work better as combination vaccines and the practice limits the number of actual shots from say three to just one vaccine. There\u2019s also no way to determine which vaccine should be given over another since they\u2019re all equally important. And lastly, it reduces medical error when all patients are on the same schedule.<\/p>\n
Even though the job may be getting harder, Dr. Garrote says she has no plans to leave the field. While Florida is leading the charge at ending vaccine mandates, she is committed to staying and practicing here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s a lot more work that we have to do,\u201d she said, \u201cbut it’s also why I think it’s so important to stay, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the place that I was born. It’s the place I was raised, and it’s where my community and my family is. I am definitely gonna stick around to take care of my community and family here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The public has until Sept. 14 to request a public hearing on the DOH\u2019s proposed rule change for vaccination requirements for public school attendance. The email for public comments is vaccinerule@flhealth.gov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On an average day, a primary care pediatrician cycles through room after room treating anything from an allergic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-397985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397985","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=397985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789228112_377_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789228113_525_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n