Florida Medical Association defends vaccines for kids after state leaders target mandates

Florida’s leading professional association of doctors issued a statement in support of vaccinations for children Thursday, just a day after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced a controversial plan to begin phasing out vaccine mandates.

“On behalf of our 23,000 members, the Florida Medical Association unequivocally supports the vaccination and immunization of school-aged children against diseases that decades ago proved life-threatening to our kids,” the Florida Medical Association, a past donor to DeSantis’ campaigns, declared in a statement. “The FMA advocates for physicians and their patients to promote the public health, ensure the highest standards of medical practice, and to enhance the quality and availability of health care in the Sunshine State,” the statement continues. “This includes the safe and effective administration of vaccines and immunizations based on years of research and efficacy.”

Campaign finance records show the FMA has contributed more than $200,000 to DeSantis-linked political committees and campaign accounts in the past — despite evidently disagreeing with the Republican governor’s concept of “medical freedom.” Although the statement falls short of specifically calling out Florida leaders’ new anti-vax plan — unlike their parent group, the American Medical Association — the release of the statement is clearly targeted. According to the New York Times, Florida would be the first state in the country to get rid of vaccine mandates, if the governor’s plan manages to move forward.

As it is, DeSantis and Ladapo are limited in their ability to eliminate all vaccine requirements  by themselves, since state law mandates them for at least seven illnesses: poliomyelitis (i.e. polio), diphtheria, rubeola, rubella, pertussis (whooping cough), mumps and tetanus.

“Florida does have laws as it pertains to school vaccinations — despite the rhetoric, the DeSantis administration can’t unilaterally end vaccine requirements,” State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, shared in a recent Instagram post. “If you’re worried about this issue, please consider contacting your State House Representative and Senator in opposition to today’s announcement that Florida wants to be the first state to end all vaccine requirements.”

Another four vaccines, however, are required under state Department of Health policy only, and those can be changed without legislators’ approval through Ladapo’s rule-making authority. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Ladapo shared during a press conference Wednesday. “Who am I, as a government or anyone else, to tell you what you should put in your body … What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God.”

The announced plan to get rid of vaccine mandates nonetheless earned swift criticism from Democratic lawmakers, public health experts and teachers unions Wednesday. Even Medicare fraudster/U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) reportedly rebuffed the idea. “Florida already has a good system that allows families to opt out based on religious and personal beliefs, which balances our children’s health and parents’ rights,” Scott told Axios.

A state health department spokesperson told Politico Wednesday that the department would establish rules over the next 80 days to allow Floridians to opt out of vaccine mandates for “personal health benefits.” 

This is despite the fact that Florida law already allows parents to seek religious exemptions for vaccinations through their local health department. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida recorded 10,556 non-medical exemptions from vaccines for kindergartners during the last school year alone. This represents just a small sliver (4.8 percent) of the total kindergarten population.

“We are concerned that today’s announcement … will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, and have ripple effects across their community,” American Academy of Pediatrics President Susan J. Kressly, M.D., FAAP, said in a statement Wednesday. The AAP has called on states to get rid of nonmedical exemptions from vaccine requirements, arguing that routine immunizations for kids “are an integral part of our public health infrastructure.”

According to the World Health Organization, global immunization efforts have saved 154 million lives over the last 50 years, with the vast majority of those being infants and children. Experts say seniors, 

Ladapo and DeSantis aren’t just going rogue, though. Trump’s pick for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, is similarly a vaccine skeptic. Kennedy, a longtime anti-vax activist, has already purged top vaccine experts from the federal health department and has moved to restrict access to certain vaccines on a national scale. Democratic U.S. Congressman Raphael Warnock called Kennedy a “hazard to the health of the American people” Thursday, as Kennedy faced calls from critics to resign during a scathing U.S. Senate hearing.

Over 1,000 current and former HHS staffers similarly signed a letter this week calling for Kennedy to either give up his post or be fired. Signers (who are not publicly named) accused Kennedy of “endangering the nation’s health.”

“We swore an oath to support and defend the United States Constitution and to serve the American people,” the letter, shared by CBS News, reads. “Our oath requires us to speak out when the Constitution is violated and the American people are put at risk.”

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