Republicans on Capitol Hill are sounding alarms over Florida’s move to end vaccine mandates for school children, voicing fears about the spread of preventable infectious diseases and what it means for their home states.
The apprehensions highlight the internal GOP divide over both the public health benefits of vaccines and the powers of government at any level to require residents to obtain those inoculations in the name of community safety.
“Vaccinations have proven to be — the basic ones — helpful in preventing the spread of measles, polio and other things,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said. “My children are vaccinated, my grandchildren are vaccinated. I don’t agree with that.”
The charged issue had already been front and center under President Trump, whose pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has long fought vaccines with warnings that they cause autism — a view roundly rejected by most public health experts.
Building on that vaccine skepticism, the Florida Department of Health last week announced it will ban mandates for schoolchildren to be vaccinated for numerous diseases, making it the first state to make such an action.
The decision affects jabs for hepatitis B, chickenpox, haemophilus influenzae type B and pneumococcal diseases, including meningitis.
Plenty within the GOP expressed doubts about mandating the COVID-19 vaccine in recent years. But Florida’s move against routine childhood vaccinations unnerved a number of Republican lawmakers who worry not only about the decision, but also what it could mean for their respective states as vaccine skepticism continues to rise in the years following the COVID-19 outbreak.
“It’s a horrible idea,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told The Hill. “I think it’s a bad idea, and I think it could create … a pressure on other states to do the same thing.”
“I just think it’s bad policy. I don’t think it’s rooted in science. I think it’s rooted in political science, but not epidemiology,” he continued. “I think it’s a mistake, and I think there could be some one-upsmanship measure that I hope North Carolina doesn’t touch.”
The remarks come days after Kennedy appeared before the Senate Finance Committee, where he received pushback from multiple key Republicans about his purge of key Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials, headlined by the firing of Director Susan Monarez two weeks ago.
Among those were Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a physician and staunch backer of President Trump, who told Kennedy he has “grown deeply concerned” with whether the secretary would “uphold the highest standards for vaccines” as he had promised.
Some House Republicans are expressing similar misgivings with the direction the country is headed, warning that Kennedy’s ascension to the top of the HHS threatens to undermine a decades-old trust in vaccines that experts say have saved countless lives.
“I don’t agree with him on vaccines, it’s that simple,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R), a Pennsylvania centrist. “Vaccines save lives. I support them, and I think any effort to erode them is damaging to our country.”
Fitzpatrick said he’s hearing those same anxieties among his constituents, citing a simple reason.
“My district supports common sense,” he said.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo admitted over the weekend that the department did not engage in any projections or data analysis of what removing vaccine mandates could mean for future disease outbreaks, such as measles, polio or whooping cough. He added he did not believe any such studies were necessary.
“Ultimately, this is an issue very clearly of parents’ rights,” he said. “So do I need to analyze whether it’s appropriate for parents to be able to decide what goes into their [child’s body]? I don’t need to do an analysis on that.”
Notably, the change does not affect shots for polio, measles, mumps and tetanus, among others. Those will continue to be mandated because they are written into state law, meaning only legislation can change that. Ladapo told CNN’s Jake Tapper he believes those mandates should be nixed as well, citing “bodily autonomy.”
It’s those types of remarks that alarm congressional Republicans, especially as many believe that widespread vaccinations have done much good.
“I’ve got doubts about that. When I was a kid, we all lined up and got the shots,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said.
Mississippi was one of only six states that did not allow for people to cite religious exemptions to sidestep childhood vaccines until 2023. In the year after a judge’s ruling mandating the exemptions, the state’s vaccination rate fell from higher than 99 percent to 97.5 percent.
Florida’s move has been cheered by vaccine skeptics around the country, who have long claimed vaccines cause health problems. And even some vaccine proponents are supporting the new policy in the name of promoting individual liberties.
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) is in the latter camp, arguing vaccine requirements will inevitably backfire in a “freedom-based society” like the U.S. for the simple reason that people don’t like being told what to do.
“It’s a poor salesmanship to mandate things in American society, even if it’s for your health,” he said.
McCormick, a physician, also downplayed the public health threat of eliminating vaccine mandates, saying people can protect themselves, and their kids at schools, by opting to get the inoculations themselves.
“If you’re protected by a vaccination, what are you worried about that person for?” he said.
Other physicians and health experts have long pointed to the benefits of herd immunity, or the idea that if enough people are vaccinated against a disease, then those who cannot be vaccinated because of age or certain medical conditions are also protected.
McCormick also blamed Democrats for the relatively recent outbreak of certain infectious diseases, saying they would never have arrived in the U.S. if not for the lenient border policies of former President Biden.
“That’s what jeopardizes us; not the vaccination status, but the fact that we brought people unvaccinated, with known disease, into the United States to expose the rest of us on diseases that were pretty much unheard of,” he said.
“Democrats [think they] are so compassionate bringing people in here and not testing them for disease, not requiring them to get a vaccination,” he continued. “And then all of a sudden, American citizens do have to get a vaccination by the point of a gun or you can’t do anything.
“That’s hypocritical.”
Other Republicans also defended Kennedy’s actions and believe he is attempting to answer many of the questions they hear from constituents.
“I want people to be safe, but …I think if people are being honest, there hasn’t been a real robust discussion about: Are all of them necessary?” said Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), a Trump ally. “I just think people are hungry for more information, and I hope that’s what this is all about.”
Across the aisle, Democrats are hammering those arguments with warnings that the nation’s public health officials should focus on science, not politics, or a public health crisis will be the inevitable result.
“You’re going to see a higher prevalence of communicable infectious diseases and some diseases we thought were contained in the past, like measles,” said Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), a physician. “If you don’t get a vaccine, you’re not only putting your life in danger, you’re putting the life of your neighbor, your neighbor’s kids — and especially the most vulnerable.”
Nationwide, all but five states allow for either a personal or religious exemption to required school immunizations. That is enough of a reason for some lawmakers to believe the mandates should stay in place.
“Are there exceptions in terms of some students that may not be able to get the vaccine? That’s the reason why everyone else should get the vaccine,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who served as the state’s governor and admitted he was caught off guard by Florida’s decision.
“It surprised me, yes,” he added. “I didn’t expect that from a state health official.”
