After Florida’s decision on Sept. 3 to repeal vaccine mandates, many fear impacts on Miami neighborhoods, saying the state is endangering their schools and communities.
Doctors and educators in Miami-Dade make up those who are criticizing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s decision, which could be enacted as early as December 3.
“ The initial reaction from administrators and from teachers alike was, ‘Is this real? Is this really happening?’,” said Ricky Junquera, the communications director for the United Teachers of Dade. The teacher’s union advocates for educators, students and public education in Miami-Dade County.
Educators are worried about how this decision would impact students and faculty. They fear the future rise of certain diseases in the school system.
“To a certain extent, you’re going against science,” he continued. “You’re going against the global community on their best practices to fight communicable diseases by implementing something like this.”
Doctors agree, saying that with the repeal comes an increase in disease rates for measles, pertussis, polio and more.
“ If you ask any parent that sends their kids to school, we’re constantly dealing with kids being sick from, you know, viruses and colds that they pick up all the time,” said Dr. Shweta Akhouri, a family medicine physician at Baptist Health. “But thankfully, the rates are still lower than what it would’ve been if our kids weren’t vaccinated.”
On Sept. 5, President Donald Trump distanced himself from the repeal, saying, “They’re not controversial at all, and I think those vaccines should be used, otherwise some people are going to catch it and they endanger other people.”
Some Republicans also disagreed, with North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis telling The Hill Wednesday that the repeal is a “horrible idea” and “a bad policy” not rooted in science.
Amid the backlash, however, Ladapo stood his ground, saying over the weekend that the decision to repeal the vaccine mandates was very clearly about parents’ rights and that no studies on the effects of ending the mandates on public health were necessary. (the governor andf surgeon general can do away with some mandates, and the legislature must approve a bigger plan.
But doctors cited the potential disease risks among children and immunocompromised people, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
“ You need a certain number of people who are vaccinated in order to provide herd immunity.,” said Dr. Sarah Stumbar, a family physician who treats primarily uninsured adults in Opa-locka and Miami Gardens. “And so when you have people in a community who aren’t vaccinated and you reach that critical number of people, that unvaccinated pool can become a nidus for infection.”
On Thursday, new polling by gubernatorial candidate and Democrat David Jolly revealed that 60 percent of Florida voters oppose DeSantis’ repeal of vaccine mandates.
In the meantime, Junquera and others hope that DeSantis and Ladapo will rethink their decision before it’s too late.
“You have to question what the science and what the logic is behind that policy that does not protect American citizens against a vulnerability that [could come] in from outside the United States,” said Junquera.
