To: The Nebraska Legislature

From: A constituent

Re: Don’t be like Florida

As the 49 current Nebraskans who write laws and make policies that affect the way and quality of life for the rest of us Cornhuskers, please don’t be like Florida.

Maybe it’s the heat or the humidity or the alligators or the hurricanes, but the Sunshine State drove its public health bus deep into Everglades muck when it became the first state to do away with school vaccine requirements.

It did so without any research into what the absence of a vaccine mandate for school children would do to the overall health of the state. I’m neither a doctor nor do I play one in op-ed commentaries, but that calculus sounds neither healthy nor wise.

One might go as far as to think Florida is making it up as it goes along.

So, dear state senators, please do some bud nipping if such an idea arrives in your email inbox, at a neighborhood barbecue or on the Unicameral floor. Obviously, Nebraska looks to other states for best practices in solving common problems. Why reinvent the wheel, right?

Florida’s anti-vax idea, however, should be neither emulated nor entertained. Contrary to information from officials there, including the state’s surgeon general and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, we have the data. Vaccines work. Full stop.

Florida’s no-poke plan begins in January and excludes vaccine requirements for hepatitis B, chickenpox, Hib influenza and pneumococcal diseases, such as meningitis. The Florida Legislature also convenes in January and would have to vote to remove requirements for measles, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, mumps and tetanus individually, a distinct possibility given the current vaccine vibe among state leaders.

We insist on sending children to school in enclosed spaces to get an education, so we require inoculations to foster the public good … in this case public health. While vaccine requirements are generally left up to the states, the U.S. Supreme Court has been clear for 120 years: States may require schoolchildren to be vaccinated to increase the health and safety of all students.

Without those protections, chances increase that children will contract and spread communicable diseases, even to the vaccinated because as doctors and epidemiologists point out, no vaccine can guarantee 100% efficacy.

As infected students interact with families, medical professionals at hospitals and clinics and in the general public, everyone’s risk increases, especially those whose immune systems may be compromised from chemotherapy, post-op complications or even age, making grandma and grandpa more vulnerable than they have to be.

Measles is a sad case in point. According to the Journal of American Medicine, as vaccination rates have fallen since the pandemic, measles cases have risen, especially worrisome because the percentage of vaccinated has fallen below 95, the gold standard for herd immunity. The CDC reports that in 2020, the U.S. had 13 cases of measles. In 2025, the number is 1,431. Twelve percent of those individuals had to be hospitalized. Three died.

Florida argues that the government should not be mandating vaccines because individuals should have autonomy over their bodies — and what goes in them. Fair enough, although such logic and sentiment fail to square with the state’s highly restrictive abortion ban (nothing after six weeks).

Florida’s decision is yet another chorus of the noisy and occasionally nonsensical chirping coming from the federal HHS, with its vaccine-skeptic leader and his apparently like-minded new advisory board. To date, research money has been pulled from mRNA research, which gave us the COVID vaccine. HHS has also added restrictions to the vaccine’s availability.

In response to such dissonance, four states on the other side of the country, California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii have formed an alliance to give its citizens data-driven, scientifically-sound vaccine recommendations. Several New England states are also considering such a collaboration.

The freedoms and rights woven into a democratic republic’s constitutional principles require both personal and civic responsibilities. John F. Kennedy, before he became president, once said as a U.S. Senator, “In a democracy, every citizen is in a position of responsibility, regardless of their interest in politics.”

Requiring vaccines for school children — out of respect for their health, their families’ health and their community’s health — seems a fitting example of his idea. So go ahead, senators, tackle property taxes, address budget deficits, reconsider term limits, whatever. Argue, debate, spit, even cuss if you must. But keep our schoolchildren — and the rest of us — safe. 

Don’t be Florida.

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/09/15/jabless-idea-not-among-states-best-practices/

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