Across the country, public school districts require children to be fully immunized against polio, measles, hepatitis B, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (among other things) before they can attend classes. These policies have existed for years; they’ve been incredibly effective; they’ve long enjoyed the support of public health officials; and they haven’t been especially controversial.
Indeed, up until quite recently, assorted partisans didn’t think to make much of a fuss about it: These policies reflected the scientific consensus. The political debate, for all intents and purposes, didn’t exist. As The New York Times explained in 2021, vaccination mandates “are an American tradition,” with roots that predate the United States itself.
But after the Covid crisis — a pandemic that ended thanks to the rapid development and distribution of a safe and effective vaccine — things changed. A great many Republicans decided to take aim, not just at the lifesaving Covid vaccine, but at all vaccines.
The Washington Post published a memorable analysis in 2022 that noted, “For months, we’ve written in this space about how the Republicans’ pushback against coronavirus vaccine mandates could foment — and apparently has been fomenting — opposition to mandates of other vaccines, including for schoolchildren.”
With this in mind, the latest news out of Florida is dangerous, but it’s not altogether surprising. NBC News reported:
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said Wednesday that the state will work to eliminate all vaccine mandates. ‘All of them. All of them,’ he said during a news conference as the crowd stood and erupted in applause. ‘Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.’ He said the Florida Department of Health will work in partnership with the governor. He said forcing vaccine mandates is ‘wrong’ and ‘immoral.’
No other state has gone nearly this far.
Ladapo, for those unfamiliar with his background, is one of the most radical and controversial state-based public officials in recent memory. He was appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who famously and falsely claimed that Covid boosters increased the odds of getting Covid.
In fact, during the governor’s ill-fated presidential campaign, the Republican also formally called on the state Supreme Court to impanel a grand jury to explore whether pharmaceutical companies criminally misled Floridians about vaccine side effects.
There might be some who see this and make unfortunate assumptions. “This is a tragic step backwards for Floridian families and their public health system, but I don’t live anywhere near the state,” some might say. But that perspective is mistaken: If Florida moves forward with plans to target all of the state’s vaccine mandates, not only will children suffer from preventable diseases, but Floridians will start exporting contagions and serious ailments to other Americans — and in all likelihood, even to other countries. In 2021, The Washington Post’s Benjy Sarlin noted that it seemed likely that the United States would “end up with fewer vaccine requirements in some places than we started with before the pandemic” that has killed millions of people around the world. That might’ve sounded ridiculous, but four years later, it’s an unsettling assessment that’s holding up well. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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