Florida child vaccine push faces bipartisan opposition, pediatrician worries

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Even as legislation pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to expand Florida’s religious exemption for vaccines moves through the Capitol, pediatricians are preemptively moving to relax their own vaccine requirements to keep young patients healthy from a variety of illnesses.

The medical community, as well as Republican and Democratic lawmakers, were critical of plans announced last year by DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo to ban school vaccine requirements. This year’s legislative push, which would add a parent’s personal beliefs as an exemption and allow them to claim the exemption online, is also facing bipartisan opposition — leaving DeSantis’ legacy of eliminating pandemic-era restrictions on unsteady ground.

It’s a far cry from 2021, when state House and Senate Republicans emphatically supported DeSantis’ call to allow parents to opt their children out of school-required vaccines for religious purposes by dropping off a form at a county health department.

State Sen. Clay Yarborough (R-Jacksonville), who is sponsoring this year’s bill, FL SB1756 (26R), this week told the Senate Committee on Appropriations the measure should inspire parents to rigorously weigh the pros and cons of the vaccines suggested by state and federal guidelines for children to ward off viruses including measles, polio and chickenpox.

“What we’re trying to balance here is how to best protect public health while relying on parents to make the best decision for their children in their lives,” Yarborough said. “It is a delicate balance.” State Sen. Gayle Harrell (R-Stuart), who has spent much of her legislative career addressing health policy and budget issues, said the bill would replace years of public health experience with a series of politically motivated assumptions.

“I truly believe this is a dangerous bill and I cannot support it,” Harrell said.

But judging by the drop in statewide vaccinations after the Legislature approved the current religious exemptions in 2022, pediatricians have already been bracing for waiting rooms possibly filled with children caught in the latest measles outbreak in the state. They believe the proposed exemption based on one’s personal beliefs will leave so many children unvaccinated that mass immunizations will no longer be effective, and doctors will be left to treat the illness itself. Some doctors have already begun stockpiling personal protective equipment and developing new office protocols for cleaning exam rooms potentially contaminated with the virus, which can linger for two hours after an infected person leaves.

DeSantis also successfully pushed the Legislature for a 2023 law protecting doctors from backlash for refusing to give treatment based on their personal beliefs. But Tallahassee-based pediatrician Nectar Aintablian said the proposed expansion has left pediatricians to decide between upholding their own vaccine requirements for patients and ignoring years of training and experience, or helping children get over potentially deadly illnesses that would have been prevented by immunization. Nearly 100 people have reportedly been infected by an ongoing measles outbreak in Florida’s Southwest corner, pushing many doctors to “stay in the fight.”

“We take it for granted, the days when parents would come in with a nine-month old baby and ask where the shots were,” Aintablian said during a phone interview. “As long as we can stay in the fight and do our work, we will take on the extra duty of talking and trying to explain why these are necessary,”

Yarborough’s bill aligns with the Make America Healthy Again campaign waged by President Donald Trump with the help of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And it’s a cornerstone issue for libertarian-leaning medical freedom groups, who believe important medical decisions for children should be left up to the parents without any influence from doctors who follow state and federal health regulations for treatments.

In practice, some parents are choosing to ignore pediatricians’ vaccine guidance and are instead using information found online to make decisions on vaccines.

“They could at least listen to what you have to say based on your years of training and experience, and it’s frustrating to not even have someone listen,” said Jennifer Takagishi, the Florida chapter vice president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Now they’re using TikTok, some families are, to do their research.”

Pediatricians have enforced vaccine requirements on patients for decades, but the popularity of the state's pandemic-era religious exemption have led some doctors to loosen or eliminate them. Some doctors have also begun work on plans to treat patients sick with the measles virus, including extensive decontamination processes for exam rooms. Some measles patients would be sent to the hospital, as most doctors offices are not equipped with negative pressure rooms to handle the sickest patients.

“It’s very scary,” Takagishi said. “I hate to say it, but we’ve dusted off our Covid protocols to address some of the illnesses that have made a comeback.”

A state Department of Health database has counted 92 measles infections reported this year as of Feb. 14, marking a stark contrast from the seven cases reported last year and 12 reported in 2024. At least 66 of the cases reported this year came from Collier County, followed by six cases in Duval and five in Escambia.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows close to 89 percent of Florida residents were vaccinated against measles as of last year, a drop from the close to 94 percent recorded in 2019 just before the Covid pandemic began. Aintablian said the state’s vaccination rate was already dangerously low, and it’s likely even lower in some parts of the state. Some older doctors may decide to retire early rather than deal with an increase in measles cases, but many others have changed office schedules for more time to talk with reticent parents.

“All I have done in my life is prevent disease and protect sick kids, and to make that point, I have to earn their trust,” Aintablian said. “Because I’m one of the old timers who have seen these diseases and I don’t want to treat them again.”

Yarborough’s bill was approved by the appropriations committee despite opposing votes from two Republicans. Alongside Harrell, state Sen. Tom Wright (R-Port Orange) said he grew up with childhood immunization schedules and found them to play an important role in keeping children healthy.

Yarborough’s bill is now eligible for consideration on the Senate floor. Its House companion, FL HB917 (26R), is still awaiting consideration by the first of three committees.