By Nathan Rawls
With it being cold and flu season, there is much conversation in the community about vaccines. Some people are cheerful about Florida’s new policy that will end the vaccination requirement for school entry, being the first U.S. state to do so, beginning December 2025. They believe that parents should be free to decide whether to vaccinate their kids against diseases like chicken pox and Hepatitis B, rather than the government making that decision. But the law proposal has also alarmed some medical professionals, who said that lower vaccination rates will weaken herd immunity and could cause highly contagious diseases like measles and polio to come back in schools, which would be very dangerous. Dr. Renard Rawls, MD, a gastroenterologist in Jacksonville, Florida, with more than 25 years of experience, says, “A vaccine mandate not only protects those who are vaccinated but also others in our community who cannot get vaccinated due to chronic conditions that may compromise their immune system. We, as a society, rely on herd immunity to keep everyone safe. Without a requirement for vaccinations, we might lose this protection. The policy puts individual freedom against the safety of the public’s health”. Others are happy to see this requirement being lifted. One mother who would like to remain anonymous said, “I don’t want the government telling me what to do with my children. Whether or not they get vaccinated should be a decision I make as a parent and not a politician.”
While this is a personal decision, we should all remain vigilant and safe to keep those most vulnerable in our community safe and healthy.
