Florida's child vaccination rate plummets: "Kids aren't getting the protection they need"

Kids in Florida are getting vaccinated at extremely amidst years of anti-vaccine misinformation post-pandemic, exhausting pediatricians and healthcare providers in the state, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

Just 90.6% of Florida kindergarteners have been vaccinated for highly contagious diseases this school year, 5% below the baseline vaccination rate recommended by healthcare experts to prevent the spread of disease. It's the lowest child vaccination rate Florida has seen since 2009.

"Kids aren't getting the protection they need. We're just one step away from another outbreak," Miami pediatrician Dr. Lisa Gwynn told the newspaper “The data is very clear. Vaccines are safe and effective, but we're up against this polarization right now. It's difficult; it's hard to do the work that we've been trained to do."

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, skepticism of vaccination has steadily risenn. According to a recent national survey, just 40% of parents think it is extremely important to vaccinate their children, down from 58% in 2019 and 64% in 2001. The survey also found that the “declining belief in the importance of vaccines is essentially confined to Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.” 

In the red state of Florida, vaccine skepticism is as high as ever, leading the state to have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. Florida’s own Department of Health has repeatedly spread vaccine misinformation, the Tallahassee Democrat reported, even calling for an end to all COVID-19 vaccinations.

The misinformation is exhausting for doctors, who can’t keep up with higher infection rates, Gwynn told the outlet. Others refuse to see unvaccinated children altogether.

“It's not just about the individual child, but it's also about family members and also their classmates within the classroom, and then it's the community at large. I think we've gotten away from that,” she said.