COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio will continue promoting the benefits of vaccines and supporting vaccinations, despite some Republican leaders casting doubt on their legitimacy and Florida making an effort to ban requirements.
Gov. Mike DeWine and Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff will continue following the decades of science that show vaccines are safe, DeWine's team said.
The percentage of kids starting kindergarten with their vaccinations continues to decline on a state and national level for diseases like diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, mumps and polio.
In the 2019-2020 school year, vaccination rates were at 89.9%, Vanderhoff said. Those numbers are now down to 85.4%, a 4.5% decrease over five years.
But state Rep. Beth Liston's family is not one of the overall vaccine rate decreases.
"I get my kids every vaccine available," Liston (D-Dublin) said.
She is a pediatrician and is worried about anti-vaccine rhetoric across the country.
"There are a lot of diseases that we can prevent, and a lot of health problems, including death, that... would have come from that, had we not had vaccines," Liston said.
In a congressional hearing, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he believes that many vaccines cause harm, an argument refuted by medical experts. He has also pulled funding from vaccine development and fired CDC officials.
"We are the sickest country in the world; that's why we have to fire people at the CDC," RFK Jr. said. "They did not do their job. This was their job, to keep us healthy."
The "Make America Healthy Again" campaign is also at work in Ohio. House Bill 112 would make it illegal to discriminate against someone who refuses to get a vaccine. The sponsors said they could not go on camera to speak about it, but sponsor Rep. Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester) introduced the same bill last year.
"Ohioans are being forced to put aside their conscientious or religious beliefs or face the reality that they may be unable to operate as productive members of our state, face job loss or denial of education or job training," Gross said in 2024.
Other sponsor state Rep. Beth Lear gave us a comment, saying, "When states, including Ohio, began mandating untested and unproven mRNA shots as a condition of employment and education, I and many others around the state and nation awoke to the massive government overreach that was taking place."
Doctors have continuously argued that the COVID-19 vaccine was tested and proven to work and be safe.
"If vaccines are truly safe and effective, then they will be in high demand and there is no need for mandates," Lear said.
Misinformation leads to a lack of demand, Liston said.
Gross also posted on social media that she supported Florida’s new effort to ban all vaccine mandates, including for children. Lear said she agreed.
The roadblock for the vaccination bill will likely be the governor. DeWine has been a longtime supporter of vaccines and the welfare of children. He has previously vetoed legislation he deemed to be against public health.
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California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii have formed a coalition to provide “credible information” and combat the Trump administration. Northeastern states, like Massachusetts, have started working together on their own coalition, as well, according to Gov. Maura Healey.
"While the state does get involved in compacts from time to time, and certainly, we coordinated with states during the pandemic on certain things... We did things the Ohio way and put out Ohio recommendations." DeWine's spokesperson, Dan Tierney, said Monday.
Thus, Ohio will not be joining the Democrat-run states' coalitions.
"You tend to hear about Ohio politicians wanting to do things the 'Ohio way' and not necessarily joining and superseding and watering down the power of Ohioans by putting this authority into a multi-state conglomerate," Tierney added.
Science shouldn't be a partisan issue, Liston said.
"We all want kids to be healthy; we all want us to use the best evidence in society to have better health outcomes," Liston said. "I think it's unfortunate that there's been division and mistrust."
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