Dr. Mona Amin on public health "through the lens of the most vulnerable": "Because vaccines have worked so well, many of us have never seen these illnesses."
Federal changes around the COVID vaccines have been a debated topic since last week, when Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that “market authorization” for the shots has been limited to certain groups.
But in one state, changes to all vaccines are suddenly even more sweeping. On September 3, Florida surgeon general Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD, announced a plan to end all vaccine mandates in that state, including for school children. This means Florida would become the first state to no longer require vaccines—not just for Covid-19, but the full schedule, including influenza, measles, dTap, MMR, polio, and more—in order to go to school or work.
While supporters of the change argue that it protects personal freedoms, many medical and public health experts say it will make it harder to keep communities safe from a resurgence of preventable infectious diseases. Announced during a uniquely tumultuous time for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other regulatory health agencies, the new rule is part of a larger debate happening across the country about health, safety, and individual rights.
As legislators hash out the details, parents are grappling with what this news could mean as children return to school this fall—and many are turning to doctors for answers. The Healthy by Reader’s Digest asked Dr. Mona Amin, DO, a trusted Florida-based pediatrician who goes by Dr. Mona (@pedsdoctalk) on her social media channels with more than 1.5 million followers, to explain how the changes will impact everyday families.
The Healthy by Reader’s Digest: What sort of public health impact can we expect from this decision?
Dr. Mona Amin, DO: When vaccine requirements are lowered, including removing mandates for kids in schools, the risk of outbreaks for highly contagious diseases goes up. Measles, for example, needs about 95% community immunity to prevent spread, and U.S. kindergarten coverage has already fallen below that in many areas. Without mandates, those gaps widen, leading to more school exclusions, more sick days, and more preventable ER visits.
This matters because herd immunity works like a shield. Vaccines are not 100%, so even vaccinated kids can sometimes get sick. But when most people are vaccinated, germs hit a wall and can’t spread. When fewer people are vaccinated, that shield breaks down and the whole community is at risk, especially newborns, kids on chemo, or anyone with a weak immune system. This impacts everyone—vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals and their communities.
Before now, vaccine exemptions were meant to be rare and many obtained them under-the-table. Some families did find loopholes through religious or personal exemptions, but mandates still kept overall coverage high. If mandates end, not vaccinating could move from being the exception to being the rule. That opens the door to bigger outbreaks and makes all children, not just the unvaccinated, less safe.
This proposal still needs legislative action, but the direction is clear and the risk is real.
The Healthy: In a video you posted yesterday in response to the announcement, you were visibly upset. How does the push to end mandates affect you as a Florida pediatrician, public health advocate, and mom?
Dr. Mona: As a pediatrician and a mom, I don’t look at public health through the lens of the most protected—I look at it through the lens of the most vulnerable. Public health is meant to be a safety net. It’s not about the children who have every resource, it’s about the ones who don’t.
When Florida pulled fluoride from the water, I didn’t worry about the kids who see a dentist every six months, I worried about the kids who never make it to a dentist. This is no different. When vaccine mandates are removed, I don’t think of the healthiest kids who might still recover if they get sick. I think of the newborn who is too young for shots, the child with cancer on chemotherapy, the grandparent at home with a weak immune system. These people rely on the rest of us to help keep them safe.
Removing mandates doesn’t just change a rule, it erodes that safety net. It shifts the responsibility for protection onto individual families. But vaccine-preventable diseases spread through communities. Every child’s safety depends on the choices we make together. That’s why I was emotional: because I see the faces of the kids and families who will carry the weight of these decisions.
And I think of the teachers and pediatric medical staff who will face more sick kids in systems that are already stretched thin, our healthcare and education systems that are barely staying afloat.
The Healthy: In your video, you touched on the increasingly politicized nature of healthcare laws. What is the danger of lawmakers making healthcare decisions based on politics?
Dr. Mona: The danger is that health becomes less about protecting people and more about winning votes. In America, we’ve seen this over and over again—gun violence treated as a political talking point instead of a public health emergency, abortion access debated in courtrooms instead of exam rooms, and now vaccines framed as a political identity instead of a medical tool.
The truth is, health should never have been political. Diseases don’t check party lines. Measles doesn’t care if you’re red or blue. But in 2025, we’re living in a reality where one political party has largely aligned itself with public health and the other has distanced itself from it. That shift is dangerous, because it means evidence-based policies are judged by ideology, not outcomes.
And the impact doesn’t stop with people who voted for these laws. Public health policies exist to serve the entire public. When they’re weakened, every community is more exposed to disease—newborns, kids in classrooms, teachers, grandparents, and healthcare workers. These rules don’t protect, they erode protection.
When lawmakers make healthcare decisions for political gain, communities lose. Children lose. Teachers, doctors, nurses, and families end up paying the price. Public health should be the common ground we all agree on, not the battlefield.
The Healthy: What would you say to a parent who is undecided about whether or not to vaccinate their child?
Dr. Mona: I understand the reservations around vaccines. It’s normal for parents to want to question and protect their children. Mandates aren’t about control, they’re about setting a minimum standard of protection for kids in group settings like schools. Even then, those mandates only cover the basics, like measles, chickenpox, and polio. Many other vaccines, like flu, COVID, or the RSV antibody for babies, aren’t even required, which shows how selective these rules already are.
What I would encourage any parent to do is sit down with a clinician who sees both sides every day: the harm of vaccine-preventable illnesses and the benefit of vaccines. I’m one of those people. Unless a child has a true medical reason not to, the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks.
Vaccines are almost victims of their own success. Because they’ve worked so well, many of us have never seen these illnesses. But when vaccine rates drop, these diseases don’t stay in the history books. They come back. And I don’t want any child or family to go through that when we have the tools to prevent it.
The Healthy: How would you advise families to protect themselves against the spread of infectious disease if vaccine mandates end?
Dr. Mona: The best thing families can do is look at their child’s risk profile and age, and make sure the people around them are vaccinated. For babies too young for certain vaccines, one of the strongest protections is making sure parents, siblings, and caregivers are up to date on theirs.
For daycare and school, families can ask if there are personal vaccination policies, since we don’t yet know when or if this law will take effect. This doesn’t automatically mean children have to stay home, but it may mean weighing your own comfort level with sending your child to a group setting where vaccination rates could be lower.
That’s the unfair part. Before, families didn’t have to carry this burden. Being in a communal setting should come with communal public health standards. Without mandates, the alternative for families who want strong protection may be home schooling, but that isn’t realistic or fair for most. Public schools are supposed to serve all kids, and lowering protections shifts responsibility onto individual families instead of keeping the community safe together.
For daily wellness updates, subscribe to The Healthy by Reader’s Digest newsletter and follow The Healthy on Facebook and Instagram. Keep reading:
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