Juanna Samarz of NPR talks to the pediatrician in Florida Mona Amin about the push of the ruler Ron Desantis to eliminate the states of the vaccines in his mandate, and what may mean this for Floridian’s health.
Juanna Samarz, host:
Florida can soon be the first state to eliminate all states of vaccines for adults and children. Governor Ron Desantis and his general wounds, Joseph Ladibo, announced this plan earlier this week. Here Ladibo.
(Soundbite from the Archiving Registration)
Joseph Ladibo: Who am I as a government or anyone else or who I am as a man standing here now to tell you what you should put in your body?
Summer: Now, the elimination of many states of vaccines in Florida will require the approval of the Legislative Council, and it is not clear whether legislators in the state will support the payment of the ruler. To help us understand what this might mean to people, we have Dr. Mona Amin at stake. She is a pediatrician at Fort Lauderdale. Welcome.
Mona Amin: Thank you for hosting me.
Summer: Doctor Amin, I just want to start your question, when I heard this announcement from the ruler and the general wound, what do you think? What comes to mind first?
Amin: Oh. There was a lot of great feelings that appeared. I was already in the middle of the meeting, and I started getting all these messages on my phone. Thus, hearing this was happening, as hearing applause at this conference was very frustrated and frustrated as a pediatrician working day after day to try to educate families about the importance of vaccines, answering their questions and trying to really be alongside public health.
Summer: We have heard warnings from scientists as well as public health workers that we can see a return to diseases such as measles or whooping cough if these policies continue. How realistic is these concerns?
Amin: It is very disturbing because we are already having vaccinated rates less than the national average. Thus, for example, in Florida, pre -school vaccine coverage and kindergarten decreased to the high 1980s. This is much lower than the CDC 95 % sill needed to prevent disease outbreaks. Thus to educate, we were talking about something called the herd immunity. Thus, in order to protect societies such as measles, 95 % of society must be vaccinated against measles to reduce the risk of spread. So when these rates are already in the high 1980s, then when we remove the state of vaccine, this may mean a decrease in the decrease in 70 and 60 %. This can mean an increased risk of measles spread and also other diseases that we have seen long ago.
Summer: Some people, as desantis and its management, argue that this should come to a personal choice. What do you say to the people who present this issue?
Amin: As you know, I respect it in many different aspects of health, but when it comes to something like public health, it is really important to remember that the decisions we make affect others. It is similar to saying that I will drive driving, which is my car, my body, but this offers everyone on the road. There should be existing rules.
So when it comes to infectious diseases, we are talking about things about this routine childhood schedule, these are things that have been studied for decades, and have been given to children for decades and effective and it has been proven effective. We know that these will prevent diseases from spreading. So with regard to infectious diseases, we see the effect there. If I do not get protection from measles, or if an entire society stops vaccination or a decrease in rate is less than a specific threshold, we can now cause newborns, individuals who suffer from immunodeficiency, grandparents, and those who cannot get vaccines due to medical problems, now at risk of obtaining these viruses and infections when they were not before.
Summer: Most states already allow parents to avoid pollen for personal or religious reasons. In the last academic year, nearly 5 % of kindergarten in Florida claimed non -medical exemptions, as I understand. How can the policy of such a policy, like what the governor desantis proposed, really affects the numbers of childhood vaccination in your state of Florida?
Amin: As a pediatrician, as you know, I see patients. It is very nice when they have to start school and come to me and they were not vaccinated, and then they started this process, right? Because of the school mandate, people have to obtain vaccination, to increase pollen in society. Now, if this state enters into force, these families will not now have to vaccinate. They will not come to my office. They will not get vaccines, and they will enter school systems. So that this number can continue to rise.
Summer: Doctor Amin, you work with families every day. What are the types of conversations that you had with parents since the announcement of this decision?
Amin: This happened earlier this week – this announcement, and I was in the clinic this morning, in fact. Thank God, thank God, very useful for the vaccine. They have amazing questions. Many of them ask me, what does this mean? My mission is to reassure my family, but at the same time I live in this world where I do not know what the future will carry. This is difficult as a pediatrician, as a person who is deeply interested in my community, about the safety of my child, about the safety of all my patients. All we can do is defense and we hope to make a change as this will not already come into effect.
Summer: This is the pediatrician Dr. Mona Amin. Thank you very much.
Amin: Thank you for hosting me.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Please visit the pages of the terms of use and permissions on the website on www.nprr.org for more information.
The accuracy and availability of NPR texts may vary. The text text may be reviewed to correct errors or match updates with the sound. The sound may be released on NPR.org after the original broadcast or post. The official record of NPR programming is the audio record.