Florida’s plan to drop school vaccine rule won’t start for 90 days, won’t cover all diseases

AP Florida s plan to drop school vaccine mandates likely won t take effect for days and would include only chickenpox and a inadequate other illnesses unless lawmakers decide to extend it to other diseases like polio and measles the wellness department disclosed Sunday The department responded to a request for details four days after Florida s surgeon general Dr Joseph Ladapo explained the state would become the first to make vaccinations voluntary and let families decide whether to inoculate their children It s a retreat from decades of constituents guidelines and research that has shown vaccines to be safe and the preponderance effective way to stop the spread of communicable diseases especially among children Despite that evidence U S Fitness Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has expressed deep skepticism about vaccines Florida s plan would lift mandates on school vaccines for hepatitis B chickenpox Hib influenza and pneumococcal diseases such as meningitis the physical condition department announced The Department initiated the rule change on September and anticipates the rule change will not be effective for approximately days the state advised The Associated Press in an email The population school year in Florida started in August All other vaccinations required under Florida law to attend school remain in place unless updated through regulation including vaccines for measles polio diphtheria pertussis mumps and tetanus the department stated Lawmakers don t meet again until January although committee meetings begin in October Ladapo appearing Sunday on CNN repeated his message of free choice for childhood vaccines If you want them God bless you can have as multiple as you want he announced And if you don t want them parents should have the ability and the power to decide what goes into their children s bodies It s that simple Florida presently has a religious exemption for vaccine requirements Vaccines have saved at least million lives globally over the past years the World Healthcare Organization published in The majority of those were infants and children Dr Rana Alissa chair of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics explained making vaccines voluntary puts students and school staff at peril This is the worst year for measles in the U S in more than three decades with more than cases endorsed nationwide most of of them in Texas and three deaths Whooping cough has killed at least two babies in Louisiana and a -year-old in Washington state since winter as it too spreads rapidly There have been more than cases as of Aug nearly more than this time last year according to preliminary CDC facts