Some might try — but ending school vaccine requirements is complicated and extremely unpopular.

In September, Florida sent shockwaves through the nation when leaders announced they were working to end all vaccine requirements for school attendance.

The video recently recirculated again, on the same day I published a story about the U.S. vaccine advisers reconsidering all vaccine recommendations because of school mandates.

Florida, and any other state, cannot simply announce they are ending all mandates.

There are some shots that aren’t included in laws, mainly because they were developed after the laws were written. In Florida, which passed their vaccine mandate law in 1977, that means the health department ended requirements for hepatitis B, chickenpox, meningitis and pneumonia.

But to end others — whooping cough, measles, polio, rubella, mumps, diphtheria, and tetanus — they would need to change the law. The Florida legislature is expected to consider the reversal of the 1977 law early this year.

“If Florida abolishes [its mandate], it would be the first in recent times to do so,” said Dorit Reiss, professor of law at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, told me in September.

Idaho recently tried to do this and it did not work. At the last minute, they said all existing mandates would still be valid. That’s because the vast majority of parents want school vaccine mandates.

More than eight in 10 parents, including 82 percent of parents in Florida, support vaccination requirements for attending school, according to polling from KFF. Even Republican parents strongly support the requirements, KFF found.

Not a Doctor is 100% free. Sign up now for more updates on health, science, and technology.

That brings me to the story I published today. Kirk Milhoan, the chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), recently said that all vaccine recommendations are being reconsidered by the committee, I wrote for the Guardian:

The vaccines committee recently changed recommendations “because we were concerned about mandates, and mandates have really harmed and increased hesitancy,” Milhoan recently said on the podcast Why Should I Trust You?. Previous committees’ “heavy-handed” and “authoritarian” recommendations “led to mandates,” he added.

But states and localities, not the ACIP or CDC, set vaccination requirements, with “exhaustive processes” that usually involve local health departments and often require legislation to make changes, said Jason Schwartz, associate professor of health policy and management at the Yale School of Public Health.

“The idea that there is some sort of rubber-stamp approach by states to simply transfer the CDC schedule to the mandate schedule just doesn’t match what states actually do,” he added. There are also several vaccines, like influenza, rotavirus and HPV, which have been recommended by the CDC but are rarely required for school.

While some jurisdictions have looked to the evidence behind ACIP or CDC recommendations to help inform their decisions, “it’s clear that link has been severed,” Schwartz said. The majority of states are now decoupling their recommendations from federal guidance, according to a new report by KFF.

Medical freedom includes the ability “to not contract a potentially fatal infectious disease against your will,” said Elizabeth Jacobs, professor emerita at the University of Arizona and a founding member of Defend Public Health – and since the overwhelming majority of families want vaccines, this group is significantly larger than the vocal minority opposed to them.

–US committee is reconsidering all vaccine recommendations, Guardian US

Joseph Ladapo’s assertion in September that the government is trying to control what goes into someone’s body is not accurate. The requirements exist to prevent school-based outbreaks. Any parent is allowed to pursue alternate schools, like homeschooling, if they choose not to get vaccines.

Have a tip or suggestion for what I should cover? Get in touch securely via email (melodyschreiber@pm.me) or Signal (melodyschreiber.06).

Top image: Ivan Radic