Gov. DeSantis Vows No COVID Vax Mandate For Florida School Kids

Brittany M. Hughes | October 20, 2022
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While the CDC may have just paved the way for blue states the country over to begin mandating COVID vaccination for public school children, there’s at least one state promising to let parents make that decision for their own kids – and not at the point of a government gun.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, best known for making liberal heads explode by defending individual rights, vowed that Florida K-12 public schools would not require COVID vaccination for attendance as long as he’s governor.

“There’s been a lot of questions to our office about the CDC potentially adding COVID vaccines to the childhood immunization schedule…and the fear is that schools could potentially mandate your child to get a COVID shot, even if that’s not something that you want to do,” DeSantis said during a presser Thursday.

“So I wanna be clear: as long as I’m around, as long as I’m kicking and screaming, there will be no COVID shot mandates for your kids,” he vowed, adding, “That is your decision to make as a parent.”

DeSantis’ promise comes just hours after the CDC’s Vaccine Advisory Committee voted to recommend adding the COVID shot to the CDC's list of recommended pediatric vaccinations for children 6 months and older, a list that already includes seven individual shots, some with multiple doses, by the time a child is 15 months old. The CDC has yet to officially add the shot to its list, though that move seems pretty imminent.

Related: Fla. Gov. DeSantis Announces Arrest of 20 Individuals for Voter Fraud, 'They're Going to Pay the Price for It'

While the CDC doesn’t actually set the rules for vaccine mandates (specific district requirements are set by states and localities), many states use the agency's recommended childhood immunization list to set the rules for what shots a kid must have to enroll in kindergarten, with some states expanding those requirements even to private schools.

Requiring COVID shots for children who are at a near-zero risk of suffering and dying from the virus isn't a new thought for many leftists, who jump at any and every chance to threaten and punish those who don't toe the government line. Some blue cities, like Washington, D.C.,  have already begun requiring the COVID vaccine for children as young as 5 to enter school. Of course, D.C. ended up extending their previous September deadline to next March (and may end up having to scrap the plan altogether) after local officials realized the majority of public school students - most of them minorities - haven't gotten vaxxed, and likely won't. 

Looks like Florida schools won't have that problem - and, rightly so, neither will families.

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