Florida moves forward to roll back certain vaccine mandates for schoolchildren

Florida officials are plowing ahead with a proposal to roll back certain vaccine mandates for the state’s schoolchildren, after Republican Gov.Ron DeSantis called for the state to become the first in the nation to eliminate all school vaccination requirements.Pediatricians, infectious disease physicians and teachers have decried the push to undermine vaccines, which for generations have been a cornerstone of public health policy for keeping children and adults safe from potentially deadly — but preventable — diseases.Experts have warned that doing away with the mandates could allow for a dangerous resurgence of preventable childhood diseases and deaths, amounting to a reversal of one of the greatest advancements in public health history.Dozens of parents, physicians, educators and advocates crowded into a hotel conference room in Panama City Beach on Friday to testify on a rule change proposed by the Florida Department of Health that would eliminate requirements that Florida children receive the hepatitis B, varicella and Haemophilus influenzae type b or Hib vaccines in order to attend public or private K-12 schools.

The proposal also does away with a requirement for the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for children attending child care facilities.Other state mandates related to vaccines for polio, mumps, tetanus and other diseases are enshrined in Florida law and would require legislative action to be rolled back.Pediatrician Eehab Kenawy, who practices in Panama City, detailed two unvaccinated children his hospital has cared for in the past six months, both of whom contracted Hib, which can cause severe infections and brain swelling.“One child unfortunately succumbed at four months of age.No vaccines,” Kenawy said.The mother of another Hib patient, a two-and-a-half-year-old, begged to have her child vaccinated after the child developed a grave brain infection, Kenawy said.“Quote unquote, mother’s words: ‘please give my child every vaccine you can,...