Vaccine Mandate

House Speaker Daniel Perez said a bill loosening child vaccination mandates would not be taken up during this week's legislative special session.

Florida Republicans have pushed hard to drop some vaccine requirements for children. But after many months, their efforts stalled out. Could this week's special legislative session get the job done?

Lawmakers will now return to Tallahassee on April 28, a week after the original date.

Florida aimed to become the first state in the nation to end all vaccine mandates. But lawmakers failed to agree on a path forward.

The Senate is poised to vote on the bill Monday, but the House hasn’t advanced its version of the bill and is unlikely to take it up with the session scheduled to end Friday.

The House version of the bill (HB 917), which would require doctors to accept all patients regardless of vaccination status, hasn’t been considered in that chamber this year.

The debate in the Senate Appropriations Committee was vigorous at times, with some supporters unsure if they would support the measure on the chamber floor. A House companion bill has not yet been considered.

Florida’s surgeon general, spiritual healers and Trump allies push their cures in a swampy outpost of anti-government absolutism and mystical belief in and just east of Venice.

Measles is eliminated in the U.S., but cases are popping up nationwide. Health experts worry that if people skip the vaccine, there will be more outbreaks.

Measles is the most deadly of all childhood rash illnesses, according to the Florida Department of Health. Two children and an adult died this year in a measles outbreak in Texas.

"Live & Local" explores Florida's plan to end vaccine mandates, a reform school graduation story, Gilbert King's latest book, and catch up on Tampa sports.

Health experts worry the policy change could lower vaccination rates and lead to a rise in preventable diseases — like polio, which most U.S. doctors have little experience spotting or treating.