Around this time four years ago, Republican state Sen. Manny Diaz, who lead a health care committee in Florida’s legislature, said the state may “review“ school mandate policies related to non-Covid vaccines. The pushback was fierce and immediate: Florida was moving sharply to the right, but the senator’s suggestion was simply a bridge too far.
Diaz soon after walked back his comment. “I in no way, shape, or form intend to change the existing vaccination statutes for Florida schoolchildren,” he said in a statement.
Four years later, Florida’s Republican-led state government is moving forward with plans to end all vaccine requirements in the state’s public schools — a dangerous step that no other state in the nation has been willing to take, and one that was deemed too ridiculous even to consider in 2021.
A few hours after news from the Sunshine State reached the nation, Mehmet Oz, the controversial former television personality whom Republicans put in charge of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, endorsed Florida’s move during an appearance on Fox News. “I would definitely not have mandates for vaccinations,” he said, suggesting the Trump administration support for Florida’s radicalism.
Given all of this, it might be tempting to think the GOP’s anti-vaccine wing is responding to shifts in public attitudes, but the data suggests otherwise. The Washington Post reported:
It remains to be seen whether other red states will follow the lead of Florida, which is widely considered an outlier on public health issues. Parents of all political backgrounds overwhelmingly support school vaccination requirements, according to a Washington Post-KFF poll conducted in July and August. The Post’s report noted that in Florida in particular, 82% of parents said public schools should require vaccines for measles and polio, which was nearly identical to the national results. What’s more, this isn’t the only relevant data. NBC News reported that congressional Republicans were reminded this week that even a majority of Donald Trump’s own voters support vaccines. From the report: NBC News obtained a copy of a memo, dated Aug. 26, summarizing the poll results. It was conducted by veteran Republican pollsters Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward and concluded ‘that there is broad unity across party lines supporting vaccines such as measles (MMR), shingles, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (TDAP), and Hepatitis B.’ The morning after his embarrassing display on Capitol Hill, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. published an online item in which the conspiratorial opponent of vaccines claimed, “[T]he country is waking up and we are winning.” There’s plenty of compelling evidence to the contrary.
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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