vaccines

Florida officials are plowing ahead with a proposal to roll back certain vaccine mandates for the state's schoolchildren. That is after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis called for the state to become the first in the nation to eliminate all school vaccination requirements.

At a Senate hearing on Sept. 9, 2025, on the corruption of science, witnesses presented an unpublished study that made a big assertion. I can say definitively that the study by Henry Ford Health researchers has serious design problems that keep it from revealing much about whether vaccines affect children’s long-term health.

Dr. Scott Rivkees, a pediatrician who served as surgeon general from 2019 to 2021 during the COVID pandemic, says the state is going backward when it comes to childhood vaccines.

In a Sept. 7 interview on CNN’s "State of the Union," Ladapo told host Jake Tapper that his department didn’t study how ending the vaccine requirements could affect children’s health or future outbreaks.

The rule changes could take effect by early December, according to the state Department of Health.

On "The Florida Roundup," the president of the American College of Physicians said he believes the state not mandating vaccines for children will increase costs for health care.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved 2025-26 COVID-19 vaccines for anyone age 65 and older and any person 6 months and older who has at least one underlying health condition that increases their risk of severe COVID-19 infection.

The congresswoman's remarks came same day the state's top medical official announced plans to eliminate vaccine mandates.

Florida will work to phase out all childhood vaccine mandates in the state, building on the effort by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to curb vaccine requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An April 2025 study published in the journal Nature found evidence that the shingles vaccine could lower the risk of dementia in the general population by as much as 20%.

Pediatric flu deaths were high again for a second year in Florida, while national numbers were the highest since the swine flu pandemic during the 2009-2010 season.

High vaccination rates can help prevent the spread of severe illnesses like measles and polio. But pediatricians say they're encountering more parents hesitant to get their kids immunized.