Overview
- SB 1756 cleared the Senate Rules Committee and heads to a floor vote with provisions expanding school vaccine opt-outs based on a parent’s conscience.
- Parents could use a downloadable Department of Health form to exempt children from required immunizations, adding to existing religious and medical exemptions.
- The bill directs Florida’s medical boards to produce vaccine education materials and requires providers to obtain a parent’s signed acknowledgment when vaccines are administered.
- It also authorizes pharmacists to dispense ivermectin to adults without a traditional prescription and grants liability immunity related to the drug.
- Republican senators Gayle Harrell and Colleen Burton opposed the measure, and Burton’s bid to let private schools set their own vaccine requirements failed, as the debate unfolds during a statewide measles surge topping 100 cases.