As the federal public health apparatus has been drawn into overt politics, states have begun, by necessity, asserting greater authority over immunization policy.

In my family, we know why avoiding infectious disease is important, but my father’s home state of Florida has taken a different approach: Florida’s Surgeon General wants to remove vaccine mandates for children and adults.

States and school boards around the country are engaged in a debate about whether to require middle and high school students to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. The debate is not so much about whether to mandate. It's when to do so.