Florida’s move to eliminate school vaccine requirements threatens lives and undermines values most Americans share, de Beaumont President and CEO Dr. Brian C. Castrucci, DrPH, writes in a Forbes.com column.
In the column, Dr. Castrucci denounces the plan for rejecting established science on vaccine safety and efficacy and for risking the health of schoolchildren and other vulnerable groups.
Further, he notes, research shows that eliminating vaccine mandates for children in public schools goes against Americans’ values.
A recent poll from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and de Beaumont finds that most U.S. adults (79%) say parents should be required to have children vaccinated against preventable diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella to attend school.
This includes most parents (72 percent) and adults across party lines:
- Ninety percent among Democrats
- Sixty-eight percent among Republicans
- Sixty-six percent of those who say they support the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement
Gutting vaccine mandates “prioritizes individual choice over public safety and strips parents of the right to send their kids to school in a safe, healthy environment,” Dr. Castrucci writes. “Cloaked in the language of liberty, Florida’s leaders are fueling an anti-vaccine agenda with deadly consequences.”
Read Florida’s Proposed Vaccine Reversal Undermines American Values
