Florida Removes Childhood Vaccine Mandates: Surge in Infections and Pediatric Mortality Expected

Florida’s recent decision to roll back all childhood vaccine mandates marks a radical departure from decades of protected public health, raising urgent concerns about potential outbreaks and child mortality. As the first state to consider such sweeping deregulation, the consequences could reverberate through the nation.

Alarming Policy Shift

State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, supported by Governor Ron DeSantis, announced plans to eliminate mandatory immunizations for schoolchildren, calling mandates “immoral” and likening them to “slavery” in a deeply controversial address. (It should be noted Ladapo is Nigerian America and lacks widespread support from Black Americans from the African diaspora.) The state aims to drop requirements for diseases including measles, mumps, polio, chickenpox, and hepatitis B, though legislation will still be needed for some mandates currently codified under law. Public health experts have sounded the alarm, warning that reversing immunization policy could unleash outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.The GuardianAP NewsReuters+1PoliticoThe Washington Post

Falling Vaccination Rates Preceded Change

Even before this policy shift, Florida had low childhood immunization. For the 2023–24 school year, only 88.1% of kindergarteners completed required vaccinations—well below the 95% herd immunity threshold essential for diseases like measles.WUSF Health Among 2-year-olds, full immunization rates plummeted from 85.5% a decade ago to just 75.7% in 2024.WUSF Religious exemptions are also surging: roughly 6.4% of children aged 5–17 now have exemptions, with some counties hitting 15%.WUSF+1 In Broward County specifically, the kindergarten vaccination rate dropped to 82.2%, the lowest in 15 years, while Palm Beach and Miami-Dade hovered around 89.8% and 91%, respectively.Broward CountyMedical Xpress

Real-Time Consequences: Rising Pediatric Flu Fatalities

These declines already appear to be exacting a deadly toll. During the 2024–25 flu season, Florida recorded 20 pediatric flu-associated deaths—the highest since the 2009–10 swine flu pandemic—constituting 9% of all pediatric flu deaths in the U.S.WUSF HealthWUWF Vaccination coverage among children aged 6 months to 17 years was just 49.2%, reflecting a steep drop from 62.4% in the 2019–20 season.WUWF Epidemiologists emphasize that while flu vaccines aren’t perfect, they are critical in reducing severe outcomes and mortality among children.WUSF Health

What hasn’t been measured are the children who are permanently disabled from their sicknesses.

Projected Impact of Rescinding Mandates

With mandates eliminated, health officials expect vaccination coverage to fall even further. Experts—including Dr. Jeffrey Goldhagen of the University of Florida—warn that disease outbreaks will likely resurge, taking lives and causing long-term consequences.WJXTReuters+1 The American Medical Association echoes that the rollback would “undermine decades of public health progress.”WJXTAP News

In communities like Broward—where kindergarten vaccination is already under the herd immunity threshold—even minor clusters of exposure could spark outbreaks of measles, pertussis (whooping cough), and chickenpox. Florida has already seen a record number of pertussis cases in 2025, exceeding 1,100, compared to just 391 in 2019.Medical Xpress

Scientific models emphasize that once vaccine coverage dips below herd immunity levels, outbreaks can spread rapidly—especially in schools and daycare centers.arXiv

Mortality Risks Among Children: A Stark Forecast

Pediatric deaths from preventable diseases is avoidable through vaccinations. Yet Republican parents, who themselves are vaccinated, have embraced anti-intellectualism and anti-science beliefs bringing abject harm to their children.

Florida’s decision sets a dangerous precedent. Without vaccination requirements, policy loses a critical lever in maintaining high coverage. With tourism exceeding 143 million visits annually, disease introduction and spread may be exacerbated—affecting not only Floridians but the national population.Reuters

Anti-Vaccine Sentiment Hurts Republican States

Since the global pandemic began anti-intellectualism in Republican states has only spread. The link between the widespread embrace of conspiracy theory and Republican/conservative identity is commonplace. Ideological rationale appears to govern Republican thought, and not any evidence based policy.

Conspiratorial thinking has steered growing segments of the Republican base toward anti‑vaccine positions—resulting in tangible harm, particularly in Republican‑leaning states. What was once fringe rhetoric now plays a central role in shaping public sentiment—and public health.

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The Public Health Peril: RFK Jr.’s Tenure as HHS Secretary Risks American Lives

HHS and anti-vaxx proponent, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was anticipated to make sweeping changes across the nation’s public health architecture (HHS.gov). With a $2‑trillion budget and oversight of institutions such as the CDC, FDA, and NIH, HHS stands at the core of America’s epidemic defense—and Kennedy’s tenure has unleashed a string of controversies that have left experts—and public health—leaving their posts and demanding the Secretary’s resignation.

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Sugar-Coated Nanoparticle Offers Nearly Complete Blockade of SARS‑CoV‑2 in Lab Tests

A groundbreaking study published on August 11, 2025, reports that researchers have engineered a synthetic glycosystem—a sugar-coated polymer nanoparticle—that can prevent SARS‑CoV‑2, the virus behind COVID‑19, from infecting human lung cells with an efficacy of nearly 99 % (Source: News-Medical | Phys.org.)

Mimicking Nature: Polysialoside-Based Decoys

The nanoparticle is coated with polysialosides, polymers made of repeating units of sialic acid, a sugar typically present on human cell surfaces. Because many viruses—including coronaviruses—use these sugar residues to anchor and invade host cells, the nanoparticle cleverly serves as a decoy, binding to the virus’s spike protein and blocking its entry into healthy cells (News-MedicalPhys.org).

Tests conducted on human lung cells revealed a 98.6 % reduction in infection when the glycosystem was present. Researchers emphasize that the molecule’s potent action is owed not just to its negative charge but critically to its precise sugar architecture, which grants it specificity and strength.

Unmatched Binding Strength

In molecular interaction assays, the synthetic polysialoside particle demonstrated binding affinity up to 500 times stronger than analogous polymers that used sulfated—but sugar-less—coatings. The difference underscores the vital role of sugar moiety structure in viral binding inhibition.

This research draws upon a collaborative effort between Swansea University, Freie Universität Berlin, and Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The study is published in the journal Small, under the title “Polysialosides Outperform Sulfated Analogs for Binding with SARS‑CoV‑2” (Source:  News-MedicalPhys.org.)

Next Steps and Future Applications

The research team is planning biological testing in high-containment laboratories to evaluate the nanoparticle’s efficacy against a wider range of viral strains. They envision potential real-world applications including antiviral nasal sprays, surface disinfectants, and therapies tailored to vulnerable populations, representing a novel, non‑immune-based defense line against COVID‑19 and possible future pandemics (News-MedicalPhys.org).

More About the Field of Antiviral Nanotechnology

While this sugar-based nanoparticle is a conceptual departure from traditional therapies, it fits within a growing field exploring non-vaccine, nanoparticle-enabled approaches to block viral infection:

  • Earlier research has implicated certain host surface sugars—such as heparan sulfate—in facilitating SARS‑CoV‑2 infection. That work offered insight into possible therapeutic interventions by disrupting these interactions ncats.nih.gov.

  • Other studies have explored mineral nanoparticles, such as copper-coated surfaces, which inactivate coronaviruses by compromising viral membranes—suggesting alternate strategies for disinfection or protective coatings News-Medical.

These examples highlight that while the Swansea glycosystem’s sugar mimicry is novel, it’s part of a broader scientific push exploring nanoparticles’ potential in pandemic defense—bridging molecular mimicry, surface chemistry, and antiviral design.

 

Urgent: Get your measles vaccine – anti-vaxxers bringing back once eradicated disease

Measles, once nearly eradicated in the developed world, is making a dangerous comeback due to low vaccine rates amongst children because of anti-vaxx propaganda.

Highly contagious and potentially deadly, the disease poses a serious threat not only to all, most notably, unvaccinated children but also to adults who may not be adequately protected. As cases continue to rise globally, especially in conservative controlled areas with low vaccine adoption rates like Alberta and Texas, health officials who are not related to anti-vaxx movements (like the current chair of the US Dept of Health) are urging everyone to ensure they are fully immunized.

Get your MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine.

Continue reading “Urgent: Get your measles vaccine – anti-vaxxers bringing back once eradicated disease”

Right-wing conservative embrace of propaganda and conspiracy theories in health

Opinion.

As American Republicans begin confirmation of their key departments including a known anti-vaxxer for Secretary of Health–Robert F Kennedy Jr., and as the White House strips massive funding for key health research and innovation programs (like cancer), it’s seems the current mayhem is not merely a part from the right-wing political playbook, but also a revelation on how way right-wing populists treat evidence and science.

Far-right populists are significantly more likely to spread fake news on social media than politicians from mainstream or far-left parties, according to a study which argues that amplifying misinformation is now part and parcel of radical right strategy.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/11/far-right-mps-fake-news-misinformation-left-study

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“Higher levels of [populist radical-right] attitudes, trust in non-traditional media, reliance on social media for political information, & lower levels of education predicted a higher online exposure to disinformation.”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0736585325000127

This includes incredulous and harmful ‘health’ ideas that in fact are harmful including the ‘raw’ craze white conservatives are embracing randing from ‘raw water‘, to ‘raw milk‘.

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Flu Spikes as Covid Continues

In many regions in North America, since Christmas, the spike in influenza A has been pronounced, curiously with COVID numbers slowing during the same period. This acts a reminder for many to not only update your seasonal vaccinations in flu and COVID, but to continue protecting yourself from respiratory infections. Some regions showing spikes in flu not seeing since the height of the pandemic.

calgary south flu a 2025

Profits from Largest Private Health Corporations in US

Here are the largest private health insurance companies in the USA, along with their market share and revenue:

– UnitedHealth Group: 15.7% market share, $215 billion revenue
– Elevance Health (Anthem): 9.7% market share, $133 billion revenue
– Kaiser Permanente: 9.2% market share, $126 billion revenue
– Centene (Ambetter): 8.6% market share, $116 billion revenue
– Humana: 7.3% market share, $100 billion revenue

US private health insurance companies are a useful component in the ecosystem of health care provision. They only exist to enrich themselves and are built to continuously increase profit for their shareholders which means delivering the least amoung of health provision to their customers. A single-payer system would enhance healthcare access, and it would be significantly less expensive, simply by eliminating the unnecessary middle-man that is private health insurance. It’s that easy for the USA.

N95 Masks almost 100% effective in block viruses like COVID-19

Despite what internet consiracy theorists (read most Republicans/Conservatives) are trying to purport, the efficacy of wearing well fitted n95 masks is naerly 100%. That’s right, wearing a mask work really really well as the primary measure to mitigate infections. Why aren’t more wearing it? A combination of cultural issues where wearing a mask is considered countercultural, and simply the unwillingness to stay healthy. Most folks would prefer to get sick constantly in the never-ending carousel of inheriting more and more disabling sicknesses from repeated viral infections.

Wear your mask!

Study link: https://sph.umd.edu/news/study-shows-n95-masks-near-perfect-blocking-escape-airborne-covid-19

The Scam of Vitamin D Supplements

One doctor made one superfulous claim with questionable data and the supplement industry used him to sell billions in vitamin D. Here’s more:

https://news.immunologic.org/p/vitamin-d-can-we-finally-stop-beating

The wellness industry is a convergence of logical fallacies, lack of regulatory oversight, financial motives, and preying on the desire to do what’s best for our health. It brings in $5.6 Trillion every year and is wildly unregulated. Products range from relatively benign (vitamin supplements) to the seriously harmful (IV infusions, ozone enemas, urotherapy). Many utilize a common tactic in pseudoscience: make claims based on a grain of truth, and this will give you immediate credibility.

Vitamin D is a poster child of this. Yes, it’s an essential micronutrient. Yes, it is critical for key cellular processes. Yes, deficiencies can cause issues like rickets.