On Wednesday, reports came out that the State of Florida would be the only state in the country to not pre-order COVID shots for children 5 and under. Yesterday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis confirmed that Florida would not be recommending COVID shots for Florida’s youngest residents.
” Doctors can get it. Hospitals can get it. There is not going to be any state programs that are going to be trying to get COVID jabs to infants, toddlers, and newborns,” said DeSantis. “That’s not something that we think is appropriate and so that’s not where we are going to be utilizing our resources.”
"Doctors can get it. Hospitals can get it. But there are not going to be any state programs to get covid jabs to infants and toddlers and newborns. That's not something that we think is appropriate. So that's not where we're gonna be utilizing our resources." – @GovRonDeSantis
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) June 16, 2022
The White House initially made 10 million COVID shots available for young children, tribes, and other jurisdictions. When approved and available for shipment, the doses will be shipped through the Food and Drug Administration.
The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) indicated that the state will not be participating in the federal shot distribution process, calling it “convoluted.”
This is not the first time DeSantis and the FDOH have gone against the federal government’s programs or recommendations.
In February, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo and DeSantis announced their own set of COVID guidelines for Floridians, calling the initiative “Buck the CDC.” Their recommendations included ending universal corporate masking, reducing isolation, and keeping kids in schools.
Weeks later in March, they also announced they would be officially recommending against COVID shots for children.
“In general, healthy children with no significant underlying health conditions under 16 years old are at little to no risk of severe illness complications from COVID-19,” FDOH said. “For adolescents 16 to 17 years of age, the risk of myocarditis due to the COVID-19 vaccines may outweigh the benefits.”
Ladapo, DeSantis, and the FDOH said that parents with children who do have serious underlying health conditions might want to consider the shot, but that the state would issue no recommendation that they should.
The FDA and the Biden administration has maintained that the Moderna two-dose and Pfizer three-dose shot is safe for children as young as 6 months. However, there have been an increased amount of suspicious deaths and health complications arising after young people received the shot.
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Grant Holcomb is a reporter at The Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
