Florida Sen. Manny Diaz launched a broadside of late in suggesting that it’s time to review vaccination requirements for public school students. The Hialeah Republican’s words, as Chair of the Senate Health Policy Committee, are not without import. This country’s successful utilization over the past 60 years of vaccines to combat and/or eradicate polio, measles, smallpox, mumps and rubella, chicken pox, influenzae type B, hepatitis B, tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis, and countless others, has literally saved millions of children’s lives. Today’s anti-vax revolt, focused on parental rights over public health, safety and welfare, jeopardizes the massive gains we have made which we are now perilously close to giving up.
Originally posted for the Orlando Sentinel’s Central Florida 100.
Photo: Associated Press