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September 3, 2025<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
U.S. States Start Sharp Divisions on Vaccines<\/p>\n
West Coast states are forming their own vaccine compact as Florida announces plans to ditch shot requirements for schoolchildren<\/p>\n
By Dan Vergano edited by Dean Visser<\/span><\/p>\n A West Coast versus Southeast vaccine divide took shape on Wednesday as Pacific Coast states formed a compact to bulwark their vaccine recommendations\u2014while Florida moved to drop school shot requirements entirely.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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\u2014changes sought by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a longtime antivaccination activist.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d read a statement released by the organization in response to the news about Florida moving to remove school vaccine requirements.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Separately, The American Medical Association (AMA) issued a news release saying that Florida\u2019s plan \u201cwould 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.\u201d<\/p>\n On Wednesday morning the governors of three states, California, Oregon and Washington State, announced a \u201cWest Coast Health Alliance\u201d 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 \u201cwill allow residents to receive consistent, science-based recommendations they can rely on\u2014regardless of shifting federal actions.\u201d<\/p>\n The move came ahead of expected changes from the new, politically appointed membership of the CDC\u2019s 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\u201319 ACIP meeting. That meeting will review COVID, measles and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) shot requirements.<\/p>\n Florida\u2019s state surgeon general Joseph Ladapo, speaking at a private religious school on Wednesday, announced that the state will drop \u201cevery last one\u201d of the current requirements for schoolchildren to be vaccinated to attend schools in Florida. The state\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are concerned that today\u2019s announcement will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, which will have a ripple effect across our communities,\u201d said pediatrician Rana Alissa of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics in a statement about the announcement.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 By Dan Vergano edited by Dean Visser A West Coast versus Southeast vaccine divide took shape on Wednesday as Pacific Coast states formed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[4074,11461,1587,1561,811,78],"class_list":{"0":"post-18970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-divisions","9":"tag-sharp","10":"tag-start","11":"tag-states","12":"tag-u-s","13":"tag-vaccines"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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