Florida plans to become the first US state to scrap vaccine mandates for school children, announced Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. Many health experts have termed the move as ‘dangerous’ considering the vaccines can protect against many diseases with life-threatening consequences from measles, mumps, polio, and chickenpox.
The school immunization requirements were started in all 50 states in 1980s with children seeking admission in kindergarten requiring vaccine shots to prevent against diseases like measles, polio and tetanus.
What the surgeon general said
The Florida surgeon general Dr Joseph A. Ladapo during an event in Valrico said: “Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” adding “your body is a gift from God.”
Announcing the administration’s intent to end all vaccine mandates Dr Ladapo said: “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”
Amid the anti-vaccine stance of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr drawing criticism among the federal public health agencies, the announcement could stir up more debates regarding public health.
How end of vaccine mandates could affect children’s health
Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a statement to CNN Health, expressed concern that the announcement will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, which will have a ripple effect across our communities.
“For many kids, the best part of school is being with friends – sharing space, playing on the playground, and learning together. Close contact makes it easy for contagious diseases to spread quickly,” she said. “When everyone in a school is vaccinated, it is harder for diseases to spread and easier for everyone to continue learning and having fun. When children are sick and miss school caregivers also miss work, which not only impacts those families but also the local economy.”
A CDC study estimated that routine childhood vaccinations could prevent about 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations and 1,129,000 deaths among children born between 1994 and 2003. They also save billions of dollars in direct costs.
“This unprecedented rollback would undermine decades of public health progress and place children and communities at increased risk for diseases such as measles, mumps, polio, and chickenpox resulting in serious illness, disability, and even death,” she said. “While there is still time, we urge Florida to reconsider this change to help prevent a rise of infectious disease outbreaks that put health and lives at risk,” said Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, an internal medicine physician and member of the American Medical Association’s board of trustees, said in a statement to CNN.