Amid measles outbreak, Friday workshop on repealing FL vaccine mandates draws national attention
By: Laura Cassels (Florida Trident)
Amid a post-Thanksgiving outbreak of measles in South Carolina — reporting 111 infections through Thursday morning — Florida pediatricians this week said vaccine hesitancy is growing among parents of their young patients. They say confusion is fueled by Florida’s top public health officer, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, and the nation’s highest-ranking vaccine skeptic, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., secretary of U.S. Health and Human Services.
With the nation's latest measles outbreak making headlines, sparks are likely to fly Friday when pediatricians, family physicians, parents for and against vaccines, state Department of Health officials, and others meet for the first public airing of Surgeon General Ladapo’s plan to repeal four mandates on school-entry vaccines now and bring about the end of seven others later.