If the Florida Department of Health (DOH) adopts the rule change, children would no longer be compelled to get the hepatitis B (Hep B), varicella (chickenpox), Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines.
By Catholics for Catholics
Last week, Florida health officials held a prickly three-hour hearing on the reasons for and against doing away with mandates for four vaccines currently required for children to attend K-12 public and private schools and daycares.
According to a story by the Daily Wire, if the Florida Department of Health (DOH) adopts the rule change, children would no longer be obliged to get the hepatitis B (Hep B), varicella (chickenpox), Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines.
Joseph Ladapo, the Florida Surgeon General told the crowd Thursday the proposed rule change was about parental rights, not science.
“This isn’t about the scientific effectiveness of one vaccine or the other, the safety of one vaccine or the other,” he told a crowd at the hearing.
It’s about the “right of a parent to make a decision about what’s best for their child. Period. It’s not complicated. It’s very simple in that respect.”
Ladapo posted on X after the hearing that the public needs “fewer mandates, more informed decision-making.”
Dozens of parents, doctors and other medical professionals delivered public comments on the proposed rule change during the hearing, held at a hotel in Lake Mary.
Susan Sweden said her son was injured as a newborn after receiving the Hep B vaccine. “He stopped breathing every hour on the hour for the first 24 hours of his life.”
Her son’s adverse reaction is documented in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), she said.
“My newborn wasn’t sexually active, wasn’t sharing needles, and as a mother, I wasn’t infected. Yet he was vaccinated without my fully informed consent,” she added.
