Florida prepares a nightmare for the Big Pharma, set to remove some vaccine mandates: ‘Vaccines should be free’
Florida – Florida health officials are getting closer to getting rid of four long-standing children vaccine requirements for school attendance. This would be the most concrete move yet in the state’s larger drive to make vaccination rules less strict without having to go through the legislature.
Last week, the Florida Department of Health moved the plan forward, starting a regulatory procedure that may get away of the need for four vaccines that are currently required by department rule and not state law. On Friday, officials gathered and talked about the change at a workshop. Residents, medical professionals, and political activists all had very different opinions on the plan.
Florida law says individuals must get vaccines for diseases including polio, measles, and tetanus. The Legislature is the only group that can amend this rule. The Department of Health has required four more vaccines for school-age children for decades: varicella, which is also known as chickenpox; hepatitis B; Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib; and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, or PCV15 or PCV20.
The department can get rid of those four rules without a vote by lawmakers or the governor’s approval because they were made through administrative regulation. Health officials said that the plan is in line with Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s goal of getting rid of all vaccine requirements in the state.
Public reaction during Friday’s meeting reflected deep disagreement. Those who were in favor of the plan questioned the role of pharmaceutical companies in promoting vaccinations and were skeptical of research done by the sector. Some speakers said that parents should be able to make all the decisions about vaccinations without the state getting involved.
Preston Judd, a Republican running for the Florida House, told the panel that if vaccines are really necessary, companies should give them away for free instead of relying on government rules to make people get them.
Doctors and other health professionals who spoke at the session said that getting rid of the regulations could undo decades of gains in public health. Several doctors stated they had treated children before routine vaccinations were common and asked the state to think about how it would affect other vulnerable groups.
Dr. Paul Robinson, a pediatrician with more than 40 years of expertise, talked about how he treated a small kid who had partial paralysis from a Hib infection earlier in his career. He claimed that these kinds of situations almost never happened after the Hib vaccine was first given out in the late 1980s.
“Let me be clear,” said Robinson. “Vaccines eliminated one of the most devastating childhood infections of my career. This is not about parental choice, it’s about the public health and protecting the children that cannot be vaccinated.”
Health experts at the meeting stressed that the vaccines being reviewed have been very important in stopping the spread of diseases that can lead to serious problems or death, especially in babies and young children.
The Department of Health also suggested changing Florida’s vaccine exemption program in addition to rethinking the four mandates. Parents can currently choose not to get their kids vaccinated if they have religious reasons for doing so. With the proposed plan, parents would also be able to use a personal belief as a reason to get an exemption.
Some people who spoke said that even more exemptions are not enough and that all vaccination requirements for school attendance should be completely dropped.
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It would take around three to four months for the rule to go through the administrative procedure if the Department of Health finalizes and files it. That schedule might mean that Florida would stop requiring four vaccines as early as the spring, which would be a big change in how the state handles childhood immunization policy.
More details about the meeting and statements are available here.
