Government officials in Florida plan to become the first state to end all vaccine mandates for schoolchildren, The New York Times reports.
Meanwhile, California, Oregon, and Washington announced that they would collaborate to review scientific data, stating that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could no longer be trusted about vaccines.
Leading the charge in Florida is the state’s surgeon general, Dr Joseph A Ladapo. He made the announcement about the anti-vax move today alongside Gov Ron DeSantis. Mr DeSantis became well-known during the coronavirus pandemic for his opposition to vaccines and has since become even more notorious in anti-vaccine circles.
“Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” Dr Ladapo was quoted as saying to applause during an event in Valrico, Florida, near Tampa. “Your body is a gift from God.”
President Donald Trump, a Republican like Mr DeSantis, said last month he would cut off funding for schools that require students to be vaccinated, but how or when he would do that remains unclear. And simply put, this would mean defunding every single school in the country right now, since they all have vaccine mandates.
“As much as I love freedom and individual choice, you do not have the right to transmit infectious diseases to teachers and other children,” I wrote at the time.
Moreover, vaccines save millions of lives annually by stimulating a protective immune response and preventing deadly diseases such as measles, polio, and diphtheria. They have been credited with saving approximately 154 million lives in the last 50 years. By enabling the body to fight off infection, vaccines not only protect individuals but also contribute to herd immunity and overall global health security, according to the World Health Organization.
