Florida to end vaccine mandates for children as state's surgeon general likens them to slavery'

"Children in Florida will no longer be required to receive vaccines against preventable diseases including measles, mumps, chicken pox, polio and hepatitis said Joseph Ladapo, the state's surgeon general, on Wednesday in a speech during which he likened vaccine mandates to slavery. Ladapo, hand-picked for the role by Ron DeSantis, Florida's Republican governor, is a long-time skeptic of the benefit of vaccines, and has previously been accused of peddling scientific nonsense by public health advocates."

"Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery, said Ladapo, who altered data in a 2022 study about Covid-19 vaccines in an attempt to exaggerate the risk to young men who took one. People have a right to make their own decisions. Who am I, as a government or anyone else, to tell you what you should put in your body? Our body is a gift from God. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God."

"Florida's department of health currently has strict requirements for immunizations that must be given during childhood, which are posted to its website. No child can be enrolled in a Florida public school unless they have received a series of shots against a number of diseases. Routine childhood vaccinations will have prevented approximately 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1.13m deaths among children born in the US between 1994 and 2023, according to a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report published last yea"

Joseph Ladapo, Florida's surgeon general, announced that children will no longer be required to receive vaccines against measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio, and hepatitis. Ladapo described vaccine mandates as wrong and likened them to slavery while invoking individual choice and religious belief. Ladapo was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis and is a long-time vaccine skeptic who has been accused by public health advocates of promoting scientific misinformation and altering data in a 2022 Covid-19 vaccine study. Florida currently requires childhood immunizations for public school enrollment, and CDC data estimate large reductions in childhood illness and deaths due to routine vaccinations.

Read at www.theguardian.com