The state of Florida has announced plans to “scrap requirements for school-based vaccination” in the midst of “ongoing upheaval over antivaccine policies espoused by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” CIDRAP has the news.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced that the state would “work to eliminate all vaccine mandates” at a briefing. He posited that the mandates “drip with disdain and slavery” and that the state’s Department of Health will work with Governor Ron DeSantis to unwind the policies. Ladapo has previously been known for “allowing parents of children with measles to decide if their unvaccinated children stay home from school during a school-based measles outbreak.”
In addition, “more than 1,000 current and former HHS staff released a letter calling for Kennedy to resign.” The letter says that Kennedy “continues to endanger the public’s health by facilitating the firing of the CDC’s newly confirmed director Susan Monarez, prompting the resignations of three top CDC scientists, and appointing ideologues, mostly without scientific credentials, to manipulate vaccine data to fit predetermined conclusions.” Kennedy will be testifying in front of the Senate Finance Committee today.
Meanwhile, new leadership at the FDA are “questioning the safety of co-administering flu and COVID vaccines” despite the fact that no safety concerns are raised in doing this nor do the vaccines become less effective because of this practice.
