Ron DeSantis again vows no children’s COVID-19 vax mandate in Florida

Florida Politics | By A.G. Gancarski | October 20, 2022

‘As long as I’m kicking and screaming …’

Florida’s Governor is still a hard no on mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for school children in the Sunshine State.

Gov. Ron DeSantis rebuked the latest guidance from a panel of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends that coronavirus vaccines be added to the Vaccines for Children program.

This reportedly would not make the vaccines mandatory.

The CDC lacks the power to require vaccines for school children, notes the Washington Post, with that power being ceded to states and localities.

Yet for an aggrieved DeSantis, the CDC even “potentially” considering such an add was a step in the wrong direction nonetheless.

“I know a lot of parents are concerned about that, because if that’s on the immunization schedule, then the fear is that schools could potentially mandate your child to get a COVID shot even if that’s something you don’t want to do,” DeSantis said.

“As long as I’m kicking and screaming, there will be no COVID shot mandates for your kids,” DeSantis affirmed to applause. “That is your decision to make as a parent.”

DeSantis cast doubt on the latest booster offering fromNovavax, deriding the product as “new shots.”

“I get a kick out of it when people kind of compare it to (measles, mumps, and rubella shots) and things that have been around for decades and decades. Parents, by and large, most parents in Florida have opted against doing these booster shots particularly for young kids,” DeSantis added.

He noted that Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo “does not recommend” COVID-19 shots for “young kids, for kids under 18.”

“Basically his reason for that is that it’s not really been a proven benefit,” DeSantis said. “We can get into some of the potential side effects, we don’t need to do that.”

Ladapo has articulated his strenuous objections to the COVID-19 shot of late.

“Regardless of what the CDC votes on whether COVID-19 vaccines are added to routine child immunizations – nothing changes in Florida,” he tweeted Wednesday.

He took his anti-vax arguments to the Q-adjacent X22 Report podcast this week also.

“I just don’t know where the corruption ends,” he said of the recommendation.