Young children would still be required to get vaccinated before entering a Florida school or day care, but it would be easier for parents and guardians to opt out of those vaccinations under a bill passed by the Senate Health Policy Committee Monday afternoon.
In addition to addressing school vaccine requirements, SB 1756 would allow Florida pharmacists to provide ivermectin to adults without a prescription as a behind-the counter medication until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves it for over-the-counter sale. Ivermectin has been approved by the FDA for certain parasitic infections but federal guidelines require a prescription.
SB 1756 cleared the Senate Health Policy Committee by a 6-4 vote with longtime Stuart Republican state Sen. Gayle Harrell joining Democrats to oppose the measure. But at least two other senators — Health Policy Committee Chair Colleen Burton, a Winter Haven Republican, and Inverness Republican Sen. Ralph Masullo, a dermatologist — said the bill needed to change for them to support it in the future.
“As we know, this is a step in the process, and I’d like to see it much better going forward,” Massullo told the sponsor, Jacksonville Republican Sen. Clay Yarborough.
Specifically, the bill would allow parents to opt out of vaccines based on their conscience. Today, parents are allowed to opt out for medical or religious reasons.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo made national headlines in September when they announced they’d like to eliminate all vaccine mandates from Florida statutes and regulations, a move that could affect schoolchildren but also college students and even nursing home residents.
Ladapo said at the time that mandates drip “with disdain and slavery” and that legislators would have to “pick a side” in the vaccine debate.
READ MORE: Florida will work to eliminate all childhood vaccine mandates in the state, officials say
Florida law requires immunization for poliomyelitis, diphtheria, rubeola, rubella, pertussis, mumps, and tetanus for entry and attendance in Florida schools, childcare facilities, and family daycare homes.
Yarborough’s s bill wouldn’t change that. But the bill would require providers who vaccinate minors to provide parents or guardians with information about the risks, benefits, safety, and efficacy of each vaccine being administered. The information provided to the parents would be produced by the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board Ostepathic Medicine (whose members answer to the governor.)
Additionally, before giving a vaccines to a minor the bill would require providers to get a parent or guardian’s signature affirming they’ve been provided the requisite information. The bill would require health care providers s to discuss with parents and guardians the administration of multiple vaccines at once and offer alternative timing options.
The bill would not, however, require parents who don’t want to vaccinate their children to have the same conversations or have forms signed by providers attesting they’ve been provided information about vaccines. Harrell argued it had been longstanding policy at the Florida Department of Health to require consultations for parents who opt out but that the DeSantis administration reversed the policy during COVID.
Harrell is considered a top Republican voice in the Senate on health care policy; her husband, now deceased, was an obstetrician-gynecologist and she helped operate his clinics. She offered an amendment to the bill that would have made the DOH also require parents who opt out of vaccinating their children to Florida licensed physicians sign forms attesting they discussed the benefits and risks associated with the vaccinations with parents.
“We are about to go down a road that’s going to create a major problem for children but also seniors … who can’t be vaccinated,” she said. “We will wind up with outbreaks of very devastating diseases such as polio — and I had a grandmother who had polio and I know how devastating that it,” said Harrell.
It was shot down at the request of Yarborough, who said it was an added barrier that wasn’t needed.
Another Harrell-sponsored amendment was adopted by the committee, though. It would provide civil, criminal, and administrative protections to medical doctors, osteopathic physicians, and advanced nurses who prescribe or administer ivermectin to adults.
Who’s in the driver’s seat?
Senate Health Policy Committee Chair Burton noted that Yarborough said SB 1756 would help put parents back in the “drivers seat.” But Burton said that the parents who testified before the committee Monday said the bill would do the exact opposite.
“We heard from a number of parents today who don’t feel like they’re in the driver seat if we pass this bill today,” she said. “I know you’ve heard that before because you’re a thoughtful person and you listen to everybody,” she said.
“We have the challenge of weighing the rights and responsibilities of all parents, right? We lean one way or another, we will be leaving somebody out and potentially we’ll be endangering some students. And if we give parents the driver seat that allows them additional exemptions to not vaccinate their children, then I’m not sure what seat that leaves some of the other parents when they don’t have options of where to send their children to school because every school has to accept these children, including private institutions.”
While Masullo voted for the bill, he said his future support also was incumbent upon changes.
“You know our governor today was talking about MAHA (Make America Health Again) and making our country greater by making our population healthier. Vaccines is part of that. And we would need to remove some of these — I’d call false — statements about vaccines and have people believe the truth. But the only way they’re going to do that is we make the truth evident to them,” he said.
More than one
SB 1756 isn’t the only vaccine-related bill the Senate has discussed to date.
The Senate Committee on Regulated Industries last week voted to approve SB 408. Specifically, the bill would amend Florida law regulating drugs and cosmetics to allow an individual to file a lawsuit within three years following an alleged vaccine-related injury. The bill would provide one-way attorney fees, allowing any claimant who wins to recover “reasonable attorney fees” but not allow winning defendants to do the same.
Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democrat from Orlando, is pushing a proposal (SB 626) to amend statutes to require the vaccines (hepatitis B, chickenpox, haemophilus influenzae type b, and pneumococcal disease) Ladapo is trying to eliminate via rule.
That bill has been referred to the Senate Health Policy, Education Pre-K-12, and Rules committees. But that proposal hasn’t been heard yet.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
