“Florida’s proposal to remove school vaccine mandates arrives at a moment when measles vaccination coverage in the state has fallen below the level needed to prevent sustained outbreaks. Using a mathematical model, we show that repealing the mandate could trigger the largest measles epidemic in the United States in nearly half a century, with projected pediatric deaths numbering in the hundreds within five years.”
So says a new study, “Projected effects of removing school-entry vaccination requirements on measles transmission in Florida,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 123, no. 40, 2026, article e2610455123.
This indirectly builds on the work done by earlier politicians — work that is proving ever more educational to scientists, doctors, and dying people, if not to other politicians.
The 2020 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize was awarded to the leaders of nine nations, for using the Covid-19 viral pandemic to teach the world that politicians can have a more immediate effect on life and death than scientists and doctors can.