Florida and Vaccinations: Balancing the Common Good and Personal Freedom

Last Wednesday, Dr. Josepf Ladapo, Florida’s Surgeon General, together with Governor Ron DeSantis, promised to repeal a half-dozen vaccine mandates controlled by the Florida Department of Health and Governor Ron DeSantis and that the Florida Legislature would work to repeal other vaccinations required by state law such as polio, diphtheria, rubeola, rubella, pertussis, mumps, tetanus and other communicable diseases. I watched Dr. Ladapo give his announcement on television and at first, I was impressed. He said, “Every last one of them [the mandates] is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery. Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body? I don’t have that right. Your body is a gift from God.”

I am a strong believer in individual freedoms, and his message resonated with my beliefs…, at first. Upon further reflection and research, I now believe Dr. Ladapo is making a serious mistake for the following reasons.

1. Every state in the nation requires children to receive vaccinations before they can attend public school. There needs to be a high rate of compliance in order to guarantee public safety (above 90% to provide “herd immunity” against measles). Nevertheless, states (including Florida) already provide parents the option to apply for a vaccine exemption based on a variety of reasons (religious, philosophical, etc.). These exemption applications are almost always approved. Today, 5.1% of school age children in Florida are exempted from receiving the mandated vaccinations. Far from being “slavery” as Ladapo claims, these vaccination mandates are a reasonable balance between the common good and personal freedom.
2. Even though he is a medical physician, Dr. Ladapo does not seem to understand his role very well. Most medical doctors do, in fact, tell their patients what they should put in their bodies. Every time a doctor writes out a prescription, the patient has the option to follow or not to follow the physician’s recommendation. (There is an important semantic difference between “should” and “must”. “Should” is usually used when appealing to a person’s conscience. “Must” usually involves laws and potential punishment.)
3. A helpful parallel can be seen in the issue of drinking alcoholic beverages and driving a car. I am of legal age where I have the freedom to drink alcoholic beverages, even to the point of getting drunk…in my house. I also have the freedom to drive my car on public streets because I have a valid Illinois driver’s license. But I DO NOT have the freedom to drive if I am at the same time under the influence of alcohol. There is a reasonable restriction of my individual freedoms if my abuse of those freedoms present a danger to the common good.
4. A reputable study from last year showed that infant mortality rates have dropped over the last 50 years and access to vaccines brought those rates 40% lower than they would have been otherwise. Surely Florida, and the rest of the nation, can find a way to balance the common good of vaccine mandates and individual freedoms of exemptions. The current vaccine policy in Florida does NOT to be repealed.