Florida set to become first state to scrap all vaccine mandates

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00:00For decades, public health guidance has been clear.

00:03Vaccines save lives and prevent the spread of disease.

00:07Now, Florida wants to break from the science

00:09and become the first US state to get rid of all its vaccine mandates.

00:13This would also extend to children,

00:16who are currently required to be immunised against certain infections

00:19such as measles, mumps and polio, before going to school.

00:23Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis,

00:25framed it as a protection of parental rights.

00:28The state Surgeon General said the government

00:30shouldn't infringe on bodily autonomy.

00:33Your body is a gift from God.

00:36What you put into your body...

00:38What you put into your body is because of your relationship

00:43with your body and your God.

00:45I don't have that right.

00:47Government does not have that right.

00:50The announcement has caused alarm among health professionals

00:54and policy makers alike,

00:55such as Democratic State Senator Anna Escamane.

00:59Ending vaccine mandates is reckless and dangerous.

01:02It will drive down immunisation rates

01:05and open the door to outbreaks of preventable diseases,

01:08putting children, seniors and vulnerable Floridians at risk.

01:12This is a public health disaster in the making for the Sunshine State.

01:16The move is in step with the Trump administration's

01:19health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,

01:21who is a long-time vaccine sceptic.

01:23In the past couple of months,

01:25he has fired several experts

01:26at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

01:30causing turmoil in the organisation.

01:32Over the last 50 years,

01:34essential vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives,

01:39according to the World Health Organisation,

01:41especially among young children.

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