DeSantis 'triples down' on fight to protect virus, $5,000 fines for schools that require vaccination
For decades, Florida schools have required vaccinations. The Florida Department of Health currently lists vaccinations against at least seven different diseases that are required for both public schools, private schools, and even daycare facilities. Both students and teachers are required to be vaccinated against everything from polio and pertussis to chickenpox and hepatitis B.
But Gov. Ron DeSantis has informed these same schools—along with every government agency and private business in the state—that they will be fined $5,000 it they ask for proof of vaccination against COVID-19. As WJXT in Jacksonville explains, DeSantis says he doesn’t want a “biomedical security state” in which people are forced to produce proof of vaccination. To underscore this desire, Florida’s Republican-dominated legislature passed, and DeSantis signed, a bill saying that no business, school, or agency can “require patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination.”
The maximum fine that bill allows is $5,000. Letters sent this week have made it clear that DeSantis intends to begin fining people the maximum amount immediately. Meanwhile, as WFLA reports, two children died in Florida from COVID-19 on Thursday—including a newborn who was just two weeks old. The director of a pediatric intensive care unit confirmed that children “do get severe conditions and we are seeing more and more of them in the ICU.”
DeSantis’ actions on both masks and vaccines aren’t just unsupportable in terms of science or public health, they’re actively destructive. At some point, if a policy looks like it’s trying to kill people, and it acts like trying to kill people, it’s just trying to kill people.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/9/4/2050290/-DeSantis-triples-down-on-fight-to-protect-virus-5000-fines-for-schools-that-require-vaccination
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