0 comments
The US state would be the first to stop vaccines being a requirement for children attending school.
The Trump administration – and specifically Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – has made its negative stance on vaccines pretty clear from the offset. But in the second term of aTrump presidency, national distrust of these vital medications has only grown.
Now, Florida is aiming to become the first US state to cancel all vaccine mandates, meaning children won’t be required to receive jabs before attending school.
Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, was joined by Governor Ron DeSantis to announce that their administration will officially be ‘working to end’ all vaccine mandates statewide.
It all sounds a bit Black Mirror – not least because public health experts have long credited mandatory vaccinations as key to limiting the spread of infectious diseases in modern society. But alas, it seems Republicans really do want you to have ownership of your own body (unless you’re a pregnant woman, of course).
‘Who am I to tell you what your child should put in your body?’ said Lapado, likening the mandates to ‘slavery’ during a public announcement this week.
‘I don’t have that right. Your body is a gift from god.’
To no surprise, Lapado has been heavily criticised by doctors and health groups for spreading misinformation. And besides the very real dangers posed by removing vaccine mandates, this kind of legislation screams of Western privilege.
Many of the world’s most vulnerable countries are desperately trying to access life-saving vaccines to curb the spread of diseases like polio and measles. In 2024, over 14.3 million children under the age of 1 didn’t receive basic immunisation vaccines (that’s 171,000 less than the year prior).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that more than 50 million deaths can be prevented worldwide through immunisation efforts in the years between 2021 and 2030.
It’s ironic that while some may believe withholding vaccines is in their child’s best interest, they’re actually putting both their child and the children of countless other parents in harm’s way. It may be your child’s body and your choice, but what about the other children who will be made vulnerable to the exposure of dangerous diseases?
As Rachel Varina so aptly put it, while ‘politicians are talking about ‘parental freedom’ […] parents like me are stuck in the middle trying to figure out what this means for our actual kids – you know, the ones still licking playground equipment and coughing directly into each others mouths.’
