Vaccine

With Florida’s measles outbreak making headlines, the Sunshine State is preparing to welcome millions of college students and families to its beaches, amusement parks and other hotspots for spring break throughout March and April. Doctors worry those visitors may return home with more than tans.

Ave Maria University reports that 49 of its students have been infected this year.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has already seen a mild uptick as the flu season begins and is encouraging anyone who is able to secure a vaccine to prevent themselves and others.

Tallahassee pediatrician D. Paul Robinson was a medical resident while researchers were working in the 1980s to finalize a vaccine against a bacterial scourge that infected and maimed 1 in every 200 young children in the United States, most of them no older than 2. In his pediatric training, he was required to help diagnose the scourge – called Haemophilus influenzae Type b, or Hib — by performing spinal taps on severely ill babies and young children, one after another.

3 teachers were suspended without pay or benefits for comments made regarding the murder of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. That is one of the issues facing Southwest Florida public schools.

Florida State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo announced that The Sunshine State will become the first in the nation to remove the mandatory vaccination mandate for schoolchildren.

Many are finding themselves perplexed by new Covid-19 booster shot regulations from the Food and Drug Administration. After health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified that “it’s not recommended for healthy people” to the Senate Finance Committee, Florida implemented restrictions on vaccine access.

Wasting no time to start on his pledge last week to remove all vaccine mandates in Florida, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo quickly removed four of them from school immunization requirements starting as soon as December. He can remove only those four unilaterally but pledged to push lawmakers to abolish “every last one of them.”The four vaccines soon to be stripped from those required for public and private school attendance fight Hepatitis B, Varicella (chickenpox), Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib), and a fourth one that fights Pneumococcal bacteria that causes pneumonia, meningitis and other bacterial infections, a Florida Department of Health representative confirmed on Sunday. All of those vaccines are recommended for school-age children by state and federal health authorities and medical associations.

Plans announced by State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on Wednesday to end vaccine mandates in Florida, putting the state in the middle of a growing national debate, drew immediate concern and anger.Ladapo said the Florida Department of Health will eliminate rules set by his predecessors and request that the Legislature “get rid of the rest of it.” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida will establish a “Make America Healthy Again” advisory committee overseen by First Lady Casey DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins.