Choice Requires Truth: Vaccines and the Danger of False Debate

Florida’s move to repeal all school vaccine mandates, with rhetoric likening them to “slavery,” marks a dangerous turning point. We can — and should — debate new vaccine technologies like mRNA. We can weigh risks, acknowledge uncertainties, and respect individual choice. But dismantling decades of proven public health practice on the back of political slogans is reckless.

There is a reason that measles, polio, and whooping cough are rare today. They are not gone by accident — they are gone because of vaccination. Strip away those protections, and they will return. In fact, Florida is already seeing a resurgence of whooping cough, a terrible disease that once took countless young lives. This is not theory; it is history repeating itself.

Yes, questions about COVID vaccines deserve honest discussion. Effectiveness over time, side effects in different age groups, and the appropriate role of mandates are all legitimate points of debate. But those debates should not be used to cast doubt on the safety of measles, diphtheria, or polio vaccines — tools that have saved millions of lives with benefits that vastly outweigh their risks.

The core issue is informed choice. Parents deserve to make decisions with facts, not fear. They should be given clear, evidence-based information: what we know, what we don’t, where uncertainties remain. What they don’t deserve is the wholesale dismantling of protections that keep schools and communities safe from preventable outbreaks.

Public health works best when it balances freedom with responsibility. Rejecting every mandate in the name of liberty may sound empowering, but it leaves children, families, and entire communities vulnerable to suffering we know how to prevent.

The challenge is not to abandon vaccines but to rebuild trust in them — transparently, respectfully, and with the humility to admit where science is still learning. Throwing out the baby with the bathwater may make a splash, but it risks drowning the very progress that made childhood safer for generations.

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