\u201cWe\u2019re in trouble right now,\u201d he added, pointing to falling vaccine rates<\/a> and the likelihood that some diseases could become endemic. \u201cWe\u2019re getting there, and this [ending the mandate] would just do-in little kids.\u201d<\/p>\n The session delved into the proposed language the department has drafted for a rule change that would do away with vaccine mandates for four key immunizations: varicella, more commonly known as chickenpox; hepatitis B, pneumococcal bacteria and Haemophilus influenzae type B, or HiB. Currently, children cannot attend school in Florida without proof of these four immunizations, among others, including the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.<\/p>\n Related<\/a><\/p>\n New Research: Childhood Vaccination Rates Drop Across 1,600 U.S. Counties<\/p>\n Although Florida is not considering removing the mandate for the MMR vaccine, health experts see the move it is contemplating as eroding childhood immunization generally. It comes when more than 300 people are being quarantined<\/a> in South Carolina because of a burgeoning measles outbreak.<\/p>\n Rana Alissa is the president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. (American Academy of Pediatrics)<\/p>\n Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, was also in attendance to express her concerns. She told The 74 this week that thanks to the success of vaccines, she\u2019s never had to treat some of these \u201chorrible diseases,\u201d including HiB, which can lead to meningitis.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t make our kids \u2014 Florida\u2019s kids \u2014 guinea pigs to teach me and my classmates and other pediatricians how to manage these diseases,\u201d she implored.<\/p>\n Tallahassee parent Cathy Mayfield lost her 18-year-old daughter, Lawson, to meningitis in 2009, a few months before she was supposed to leave for college and just before she was due for a booster shot. (At the time, the booster was not recommended until college, according to Mayfield.)<\/p>\n \u201cYou just don\u2019t realize until it happens to you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She hopes others will learn the importance of vaccinating their own kids from her family\u2019s story.<\/p>\n Cathy Mayfield, and her daughter, Lawson, who died in 2009 from meningitis. (Cathy Mayfield)<\/p>\n \u201cAll the information I learned through our tragedy about vaccinations made me very supportive of the safeguards [they] offer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve also got to realize,\u201d Mayfield added, \u201cthat your decisions affect your community, and that\u2019s something I think has gotten lost in \u2026 all this conversation and hesitancy about vaccinations.\u201d<\/p>\n Equating vaccine mandates to slavery<\/p>\n The workshop, which was announced the day before Thanksgiving, was held in Panama City Beach, in the Florida Panhandle, far from the state\u2019s main population centers. About 100 people showed up to the session, which was characterized by attendees as heated<\/a> but civil. North Saunders, executive director of the pro-vaccine advocacy organization American Families for Vaccines<\/a> and who was there, estimated that about 30 people spoke in favor of keeping the current vaccine mandates, while approximately 20 spoke in opposition.<\/p>\n Some speakers opposed to vaccine mandates included conspiracy theories in their arguments, according to news reports and numerous people present at the workshop, echoing language heard from the federal government since Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time vaccine skeptic, took over the Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n Related<\/a><\/p>\n Confusion as Kids Head Back to School and RFK Jr. Calls the Shots on Vaccines<\/p>\n One attendee argued that giving children multiple jabs in a 30-day period \u201caccounts to attempted murder,\u201d according to NBC News<\/a>. A number of others questioned if this year\u2019s reported measles outbreaks, which resulted in the deaths of two school-age, unvaccinated children<\/a> in Texas, had actually occurred.<\/p>\n Florida leaders\u2019 desire to become the first state to end all vaccine mandates<\/a> was announced in September by its surgeon general, Joseph A. Ladapo, standing beside Gov. Ron DeSantis in the gym of a private Christian high school. In sharing their plan, Ladapo claimed that \u201cevery last [mandate] is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n Only four vaccines are mandated through a Department of Health rule and are therefore under Lapado\u2019s purview. The remaining nine, which in addition to the MMR shot include polio, are part of state law and can only be changed through legislative action.<\/p>\n Experts told The 74 this is a much more difficult feat, one that state legislators \u2014 even conservative ones \u2014 don\u2019t seem to have an appetite for. Richard Hughes, a George Washington University law professor and leading vaccine law expert, said such a legislative attempt would \u201cwarrant legal action.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018We really need to turn this around\u2019<\/p>\n The debate in Florida and other states over mandatory childhood immunization comes as the country teeters on the edge of losing its measles elimination status. This year alone has seen nearly 2,000<\/a> confirmed cases, the most since 2000, when measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. by the World Health Organization. Just over 10% of cases have led to hospitalization. The current South Carolina outbreak has infected at least 138 people<\/a>, and among those forced to quarantine are students from nine schools.<\/p>\n Significant educational implications from the outbreaks emerged in a new study<\/a> by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, which found that absences increased 41% in a school district at the center of the West Texas outbreak, with larger effects among younger students.<\/p>\n The spread of measles is also a warning of the ramifications of dropping vaccine rates, according to William Moss, executive director at Johns Hopkins\u2019 International Vaccine Access Center.<\/p>\n \u201cMeasles often serves as what we [call] the canary in the coal mine,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really identifies weaknesses in the immunization system and programs, because of its high contagiousness.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, I see a perfect storm brewing for the resurgence of vaccine preventable diseases,\u201d he added, \u201c\u2026 We really need to turn this around.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention got rid of a recommendation that all newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine<\/a>, and in the preceding months changed policies surrounding the measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox) combination vaccine and this year\u2019s COVID 19 booster \u2014 all based on recommendations from an advisory committee hand-picked by Kennedy. The universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, in place for decades, was credited with nearly eliminating the highly contagious and dangerous virus in infants.<\/p>\n Related<\/a><\/p>\n CDC Advisory Committee Votes to Overturn Decades-Old Hep B Vax Recommendations<\/p>\n Lynn Nelson, the president of the National Association of School Nurses, fears that other, more conservative states will now look to Florida as an example.<\/p>\n \u201cWe already have seen outbreaks all over, and they\u2019re only going to escalate if you have an area of the country whose herd immunity levels slip down further than they already are, which I think will happen if those [anti-mandate rules] come into effect,\u201d she said. \u201cThat, in combination with some of the other misinformation that\u2019s coming out, people will feel validated in decisions not to immunize their children.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida\u2019s Department of Health appears to be moving ahead to end requirements for the four vaccines it controls, despite a recent poll<\/a> indicating nearly two-thirds of Floridians oppose the action. Proposed draft language presented at the Dec. 12 workshop would also allow parents to opt their kids out of the state\u2019s immunization registry, Florida SHOTS, and expand exemptions.<\/p>\n Currently, all 50 states have vaccine requirements for children entering child care and schools. Parents across the country are able to apply for exemptions if their child is unable to get vaccinated for medical reasons and most states \u2014 including Florida \u2014 also have religious exemptions. Part of the proposed changes presented at the Dec. 12 meeting would add Florida to the 20 states that additionally have some form of personal belief exemptions<\/a>, further widening parents\u2019 ability to opt their kids out of routine vaccines.<\/p>\n The public comment period remains open through Dec. 22, after which the department will decide whether or not to move forward with the rule change. In the interim, advocates are pushing state health officials to conduct epidemiological research around the impact of removing the vaccine mandates and studies on the potential economic costs. Florida is heavily reliant on tourism<\/a> and out-of-state visitors.<\/p>\n Without that information, pro-vaccine advocate Saunders said these critical public health care decisions will be made \u201cat the whim of an appointed official.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe nation,\u201d he added, \u201cis looking at Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A week after Florida health officials brought the state one step closer to abolishing childhood vaccine mandates, pediatricians,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13327,47864,28,1369,30,29,12205,47866,47868,47865,47867,12690],"class_list":["post-88140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-american-academy-of-pediatrics","tag-cathy-mayfield","tag-florida","tag-florida-department-of-health","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-panhandle","tag-frederick-southwick","tag-hepatitis-b-vaccine","tag-mmr-vaccine","tag-rubella-vaccine","tag-vaccine-mandates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88140","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=88140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Rana](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/c40357937ced6e808b347a4f300c4ea0.jpeg\"\/)
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