September 3, 2025
2 min read
U.S. States Start Sharp Divisions on Vaccines
West Coast states are forming their own vaccine compact as Florida announces plans to ditch shot requirements for schoolchildren
A West Coast versus Southeast vaccine divide took shape on Wednesday as Pacific Coast states formed a compact to bulwark their vaccine recommendations—while Florida moved to drop school shot requirements entirely.
The moves come amid concern about changing vaccine recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ahead of flu season because influenza viruses often spread severely in schools. Last week the White House last week fired the CDC’s newly installed director, Susan Monarez, prompting the resignation of other senior agency staff. Reportedly Monarez was fired because she disagreed with such shifts in vaccine policies, including removing or limiting shots for kids—changes sought by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a longtime antivaccination activist.
“The AAP [American Academy of Pediatrics] believes every family should have access to immunizations to keep their community healthy. Schools are an important part of that community,” read a statement released by the organization in response to the news about Florida moving to remove school vaccine requirements.
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Separately, The American Medical Association (AMA) issued a news release saying that Florida’s plan “would undermine decades of public health progress and place children and communities at increased risk for diseases such as measles, mumps, polio, and chickenpox resulting in serious illness, disability, and even death. While there is still time, we urge Florida to reconsider this change to help prevent a rise of infectious disease outbreaks that put health and lives at risk.”
On Wednesday morning the governors of three states, California, Oregon and Washington State, announced a “West Coast Health Alliance” to coordinate their vaccine guidelines. A news release about the decision cited “leadership changes, reduced transparency, and the sidelining of long-trusted advisory bodies” at the CDC and said that the state alliance “will allow residents to receive consistent, science-based recommendations they can rely on—regardless of shifting federal actions.”
The move came ahead of expected changes from the new, politically appointed membership of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The panel may include seven new members, whom the agency reportedly plans to install ahead of a September 18–19 ACIP meeting. That meeting will review COVID, measles and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) shot requirements.
Florida’s state surgeon general Joseph Ladapo, speaking at a private religious school on Wednesday, announced that the state will drop “every last one” of the current requirements for schoolchildren to be vaccinated to attend schools in Florida. The state’s health department will immediately move to end school requirements for four shots: those protecting against chicken pox, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b and pneumococcal disease. State laws require that schoolchildren receive shots for polio, mumps, tetanus and other illnesses, so the state legislature would need to change those rules.
“We are concerned that today’s announcement will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, which will have a ripple effect across our communities,” said pediatrician Rana Alissa of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics in a statement about the announcement.
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