As we enter into vaccination season, Florida has been pushing to abolish school’s vaccination restrictions, with the push, being spearheaded by surgeon general Joseph Ladapo. This push is being made to give parents more rights over their children, but more importantly it serves as a public health hazard, putting many people’s lives at risk.
Loosening vaccination restrictions is an awful idea in general and a dangerous idea for public health, putting many people at risk. This change will allow for outbreaks of preventable and dangerous diseases, creating a more unsafe school environment.
School nurse Nicole Myers explained why this is a bad idea. “From a public health perspective a change like this can be considered dangerous for several reasons, including outbreaks of preventable diseases, increased risk of disease for the vulnerable, exacerbation of health inequality and negative effects on schools such as decreased attendance and less people going into the profession,” Myer said.
This change breaks communities, putting those with weak immune systems at serious risk. a demographic that includes children, the elderly and the immunocompromised. On top of that it also has negative impacts on our schools. With decreased attendance and less people in the profession, less learning will happen.
In practice, loose vaccination restrictions have actually shown the negative effects of changes like this, such as the measles in Texas this past august. Measles is a preventable disease with 285 cases confirmed in 2024, whereas in 2025 there were 1,544 cases have been confirmed.
Myers mentioned this outbreak during the interview, which had occurred in “west texas, a place with low vaccination rates” and subsequently this led to “the most cases of measles in 30 years.” She went on to mention how “measles were confirmed in 39/50 states with 1400 cases nationwide, of these cases 92% were not vaccinated or had unknown vaccination status.”
These statistics illustrate the point further, without vaccinations there is a public health crisis. Florida has been making this big push for parent’s rights and yet it seems that the data on the impact of such a change is being ignored
Though, these statistics and data are in fact, being ignored. Lapado states this big change has not been made with any analysis of data to back it.
Ladapo stated whilst discussing if he used data and statistics to drive this decision “Do I need to analyze whether it’s appropriate for parents to be able to decide what goes in their children’s bodies.”
With such an important public health decision, that has the potential to put many lives at risk, we should know how this change will put people at risk. No data analysis means no way to know how bad this change could be, no way for hospitals to accurately prepare for this change.
Lapado is following Kennedy’s MAHA, which is a frequent proponent of the theory that vaccinations cause autism, a lie that has been disputed many times. This is a dangerous theory which ladapo has not been outright perpetuating is still an important part of understanding this decision.
Kennedy stated in an interview in 2023 that he “does believe vaccinations cause autism” something that many doctors frequently dispute. Along with this Myers disputed this too, stating that vaccines do not cause autism. many major health organizations, specifically, the CDC or WHO both of whom say there is no connection between vaccines and autism.
Lapado’s big medical change is not backed by data and statistical analysis. This push has also been following Kennedy’s big medical plan, which pushes ideas that are not backed by facts. This illustrates a bigger picture of this change and how harmful it could be.
Even though this change has no statistics or analysis backing it, it is still being pushed. Ultimately, schools and hospitals will pay the price for this change, with hospitals being packed and possibly unable to handle this change, and Florida schools seeing low attendance numbers as a result of it.
