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Florida officials are plowing ahead with a proposal to roll back certain vaccine mandates for the state’s schoolchildren. That is after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis called for the state to become the first in the nation to eliminate all school vaccination requirements. The Florida Department of Health held a public hearing on the policy change in Panama City Beach on Friday. Activists and parents opposed to the mandates heralded the importance of individual freedom. Doctors recalled the children who died of infectious diseases before the advent of vaccines. For generations, the shots have been a cornerstone of public health policy.
AP
Jamie Schanbaum, whose legs and fingers were amputated after she contracted meningitis as a college student, testifies in support of vaccine mandates at a public hearing held by the Florida Department of Health on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025 in Panama City Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)
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Larry Downs of Pensacola, Fla., testifies against childhood vaccine mandates at a public hearing held by Florida’s Department of Health on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025 in Panama City Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)
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FILE - Vaccines are advertised outside a pharmacy in Miami, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
A federal vaccine advisory committee has voted to end a longstanding recommendation that all U.S. babies get the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they’re born. For decades, the government has advised that all babies be vaccinated against the liver infection right after birth. The shots are widely considered to be a public health success for preventing thousands of illnesses. But U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s committee voted Friday to recommend the birth dose only for babies whose mothers test positive. For other babies, it will be up to the parents and their doctors to decide if a birth dose is appropriate.
The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meets in Atlanta on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025 to consider changes in hepatitis B vaccine recom…
The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices votes to recommend changes to the infant hepatitis B vaccination policy during a meeting …
The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meets in Atlanta on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025 to consider changes in hepatitis B vaccine recom…
Dr. Robert Malone chairs a meeting of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in Atlanta on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025 to consider chan…
The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meets in Atlanta on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025 to consider changes in hepatitis B vaccine recom…