Following in RFK, Jr.’s demented footsteps, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has announced that the state will no longer require any vaccinations. That includes the longstanding requirements that children entering public school classrooms receive inoculations that have long been required to protect themselves and–importantly– their classmates.
Ladapo also acknowledged that his team had not conducted any studies on the effects of removing state vaccine mandates, because, he claimed, it is an “issue of right and wrong in terms of whether parents should be able to control, have ultimate authority over what happens to their kids’ bodies.”
I will leave it to medical experts (a category that clearly does not include either RFK, Jr. or Ladapo) to explain the likely real-world consequences of this insane decision to reject decades of scientific and medical evidence. But I do want to point to a statement by Ladapo illustrating that his ignorance of the law and constitution are equal–if not superior–to his disdain for history and medical science.
A number of media reports have included Ladapo’s statement that government has no right to dictate to citizens what they should put in their bodies. He actually said “You have sovereignty over your body.”
If your first reaction to that rather astonishing claim was something to the effect of “then how can government force women to give birth? If women have sovereignty over their bodies, abortion bans are clearly illegal” you’d have a lot of company.
But that incredible hypocrisy isn’t even the worst of it.
If government didn’t have the right to require certain behaviors, including health measures, there would be no reason to appoint Surgeon Generals. The proper question is: when and under what circumstances does government have the right to mandate such behaviors–and the answer to that requires a basic understanding of the underlying libertarian premise of America’s constitution, which does indeed accord sovereignty over an individual’s decisions to that individual until and unless those decisions harm people who have not consented to that harm.
Remember smallpox? As far back as 1777, George Washington faced a smallpox epidemic that was devastating his army, and he ordered the compulsory variolation (the forerunner of vaccinations) of all his troops. Washington’s edict is considered the first mass immunization policy in American history, but it certainly wasn’t the last. In 1813, President James Madison signed “An Act to Encourage Vaccination,” which established the United States Vaccine Agency and allowed free postal delivery of vaccine materials. And in 1905, the Supreme Court affirmed states’ authority to pass and enforce compulsory vaccination laws “for the common welfare” in Jacobson v. Massachusetts.
The U.S. Constitution allows us to destroy our own bodies by indulging in unhealthy habits, or refusing medical care. It does not allow us to endanger our fellow citizens. Despite the selfish complaints of people who didn’t want to abide by masking rules during the pandemic, our legal system does not permit us to wilfully engage in behaviors that are highly likely to endanger others. The issue is not whether we retain complete authority over our bodies, no matter what the circumstances. That question has been answered–we don’t. The correct question is: under what circumstances can the government require us to take measures that protect other members of the public?
If FloraDUH goes through with this truly insane measure, it is likely to accelerate the state’s already-substantial exodus of educated citizens–an exodus initiated by Governor DeSantis’ assault on higher education. It’s also likely to put a significant dent in the tourism that supports FloriDUH’s economy. (I certainly wouldn’t take children or grandchildren to a Disneyland where they are likely to mingle with unvaccinated Florida natives.)
I can see the tourism slogans now. “Come to Florida, where the sun doesn’t shine on rainbow crosswalks, where our universities are staffed only with instructors who can’t find jobs elsewhere, and where our unvaccinated children infect both other children and medically-vulnerable oldsters.”
FloriDUh–a perfect example of a Red state.
How can people be so stupid? Is it something in the water?
All that and DeSantis gets elected. There is no god.
This paragraph should actually be on the application for Florida Republicans to be eligible for the Mass Darwin Award: “I will leave it to medical experts (a category that clearly does not include either RFK, Jr. or Ladapo) to explain the likely real-world consequences of this insane decision to reject decades of scientific and medical evidence. But I do want to point to a statement by Ladapo illustrating that his ignorance of the law and constitution are equal–if not superior–to his disdain for history and medical science.”
Clearly these intellectual dwarfs lack the cognitive ability to understand anything, never mind for the benefit of the citizens they presume to serve.
Mass stupidity, ignorance and mindless fear of the “other” puts these damned fools in power. To Florida voters: Reap what you sow, dummies.
Thinning out the herd, Florida-style. If we aren’t allowed to harm others, according to the premise of the law, how could this order possibly get past the legal obstacles when it obviously will hurt others?
This reminds me of the debate over the Covid vaccination and mask mandate, etc.
I don’t trust Big Pharma at all, and their institutional capture of federal agencies. Their motto is profit over people, so when it comes down to keeping us sick or eliminating a disease, Big Pharma chooses profits every time. For them, it’s all about quarterly profits.
Is this about bodily autonomy or making kids sick so the medical profession can roll in the benjamins?
Sorry for the cynical tone, but I don’t trust anything or anybody in a position of authority. I already wavered before the rise of MAGA, but now it’s even worse. The more I learn, the less I trust. I’ve reached the point where it’s better to trust nobody or nothing, and be pleasantly surprised, than to trust and be harmed.
After the dismal jobs numbers were released, I read that the federal government had found a million jobs and would be releasing a revision. I absolutely do not trust those numbers. I can certainly say that I trust nothing coming from Trump’s administration, nor any MAGA-run government like Florida or Indiana.
The donors to MAGA love the illiterate public servants, meaning they’re illiterate themselves or just plain evil.
I think some of it is also tied in with eugenics / white supremacy — the notion is that the truly strong (and therefore worthy) individuals will survive the natural infections, while the weak ones will die off and hence no longer contaminate the gene pool.
Of course, that’s all just ideological nonsense, not science. They don’t understand that “natural” immunity isn’t fundamentally any different from vaccine-induced immunity (your immune system doesn’t know where the immunogen came from, just that it is Not You and needs to be Defended Against), nor that who lives and who dies from illness is far more random that would be supported by the sort of Calvinist / social-Darwinist / Dominionist / survivor-bias / Nazi theories of “if you survived then you must have been the strong one.”
Jan: You’re right, according to RFK jr.,(typo intended), it’s because fluoride in the water.
It’s not a matter of “rights,” it’s a matter of coming up with BS explanations to support the BS policies. Ladapo is where he is only because of Death Santis. He is a willing apparatchik , little more…apparatchik spelled as DUH?
Aimee, you may have a point there, but one also has to take into consideration that we do not know whether, or not, these “leaders” are that stupid, or that they, wisely in their odious way, just count on the stupidity of so many people.
The upshot her, is that those who can not stomach the governmental idiocy, and can leave, will do so, leaving a higher percentage of fools making up the population of FloriDUH, and voting DUHMLY!
Not “her,” but “here.”
We were in Florida last winter, revisiting some of our old haunts. Friends told us that the housing market, which has increased the value of real property relentlessly, has reached a saturation point, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to sell at the current level.
I don’t think our long-term hurricane forecasting is very good, even though the short-term forecasts are extremely useful. As the cost of flood insurance has increased in line with property values, more and more residents are unable to afford it.
A Katrina-like event will occur in that state; it’s just a matter of when. When it does, FEMA may well be broke.
Then what? Will that become the message from some god that Earth seeks revenge for our ignorance and subsequent abuse of our home?
So, it will take a few years for the Florida tragedy to unfold. It will most likely start with a measles outbreak at a school among young children. It will spread across the state in a matter of weeks. Fearful parents will flee the state, unknowingly with already infected children, and we will have at least a regional measles epidemic.
Given the warm weather and abundance of swimming pools Polio will also become a “problem” again and the epicenter will most likely be someplace like Orlando, with it’s huge tourist population and abundance of water parks.
But this is all a few years in the future. That is like a million political years, so by then an already deluded base will never blame the people that politicized basic public health.
Pete we were in Florida last year, near Clearwater Beach. In that area one out of three houses had a storage unit in the front year. One out of three had a contractors van in the driveway and one out of three had for sale sign.
The most amazing thing I saw was in a particularly hard hit neighborhood on Tampa Bay, was a new house. They had torn down two i of the 60-70’s era houses, and built one giant, jacked up 20 feet into the air, McMasion. They were asking $1+ Million for it.
The real estate market in FLorida is going to be very interesting over the next decade or so. I hate the politics of the state, but they have good winter time weather, but we visit we always rent. I might have to rethink that strategy if the new Florida state motto becomes “Welcome to the Pestilence State”.
To Chris Thrasher, I lived in Florida in the late 1950’s and the anti-flouride b.s. was going on then, too. Probably contributed to the “hanging chads” controversy. 😎
Diseases are best avoided for both the short and long term affects they exact, including the permanence of disabilities and death. I don’t have to experience each disease to know that I’d rather not have them at all.
Jan, Back in the 1950’s the fluoride BS was about how it was part of a Commie plot! Can’t argue with stupid.
Just back from getting yearly seniors high dose flu shot at Kroger’s pharmacy. This year it covers two A strains and a B strain that are circulating. I don’t get two shots at once (my preference) but ask about this year’s Covid vaccine. For now you must have a Drs. order to get the covid shot there. Pharmacist said that might change since the CDC recommends a covid shot for all people over 65yrs. It’s just another step to deter people from protecting themselves and cutting costs for the Fed.
DeSantis’ children go to private school where vaccines are required. I did not vet this but it came from a reliable source.