Florida Doctors Aren’t Treating Unvaccinated Kids, Surgeon General Says

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is urging the passing of statewide legislation to minimize purported incidents of doctors rejecting patients due to being unvaccinated.

Newsweek reached out to the Florida Department of Health for comment.

Why It Matters

In March, Lapado and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged Florida lawmakers to pass legislation making it illegal for businesses and government entities to fire or refuse to hire employees based on their vaccination status, as well as to implement a permanent ban on mRNA vaccine mandates in Florida—which Ladapo compared to the “horrific things” doctors did to Jewish people in Nazi concentration camps.

What To Know

Ladapo, in remarks made Monday during a Senate Committee on Rules meeting, lamented how parents across Florida have purportedly had trouble finding pediatricians due to certain doctors refusing to see children “if they deviate at all from the vaccine schedule issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).”

“We’re in a new era,” Ladapo said. “There are more people now asking questions about ‘what’s really best for my kid’ after the last few years we’ve been in. There are way more parents; most of these parents aren’t even parents that don’t want any vaccines for their kids. That’s the minority of the parents.

“Most of them are parents who just don’t feel like it’s appropriate, it’s in the best interest of their kid to get four vaccines in one visit—which is part of the CDC schedule.”

Ladapo claimed that pediatric practices, including “most of them” in Pinellas County, will not entertain deviations for parents who want to spread out vaccines for their kids.

Florida state data shows that nearly all 67 counties have seen a decline in childhood immunizations among kindergartners since COVID started in 2020, according to the Miami Herald.

As religious exemptions to vaccinations continue to increase, the number of kindergartners with mandatory vaccinations decreased to 88 percent in the 2023-24 school year—down from 94 percent in 2019-20, equating to “several thousand kids” passing on vaccinations.

Later on Monday, the Florida Senate Rules Committee approved Senate Bill 1270 for advancement to the floor by a 17-6 vote.

The legislation, sponsored by Senator Jay Collins, prohibits discrimination by health care providers and facilities based on patients’ vaccination status.

The bill also ensures that mRNA vaccine definitions are not repealed and that individual health decisions remain allowed.

Newsweek reached out to Collins’ office for comment.

“This is a really a prohibition on discrimination based on whatever vaccine preferences a person may have,” Ladapo said, adding that the legislation allows doctors to do their due diligence but should not mean that they can’t see patients with different perspectives on vaccinations.

What People Are Saying

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on X last month: “Guided by common sense and sound science, Florida has led the way in protecting patients’ rights. Now is the time to secure these protections and do even more to defend medical freedom. Joseph Ladapo, Casey DeSantis, and I are calling on the Legislature to expand our Patient’s Bill of Rights by prohibiting health care providers from refusing to treat patients based on vaccination status.

Florida first lady Casey DeSantis speaking last month: “It is absolutely ridiculous and unconscionable that at this point, with what we know about the mRNA COVID vaccine—and frankly, what we don’t know about the mRNA COVID vaccine—that the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] would still put this shot on their recommended vaccine list for our children. And I think that is an utter disgrace, and I think that they need to take that down. This should be evidence-based, not agenda-driven.”

What Happens Next

It remains unknown when SB 1270 will be heard on the Florida Senate floor.