The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services,and is headquartered in Atlanta,Georgia.
The Florida Department of Health is responsible for protecting the public health and safety of the residents and visitors of the state of Florida. It is a cabinet-level agency of the state government,headed by a state surgeon general who reports to the governor. The department has its headquarters in Tallahassee.
Jared Evan Moskowitz is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 23rd congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party,Moskowitz served on the Broward County Commission from 2021 to 2022 and as director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management from 2019 to 2021. Before his appointment to the Florida Division of Emergency Management,he served in the Florida House of Representatives,representing the Coral Springs area in northern Broward County from 2012 to 2019.
Robert Ray Redfield Jr. is an American virologist who served as the Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 2018 to 2021.
Measles vaccine protects against becoming infected with measles. Nearly all of those who do not develop immunity after a single dose develop it after a second dose. When the rate of vaccination within a population is greater than 92%,outbreaks of measles typically no longer occur;however,they may occur again if the rate of vaccination decreases. The vaccine's effectiveness lasts many years. It is unclear if it becomes less effective over time. The vaccine may also protect against measles if given within a couple of days after exposure to measles.
Lesbian,gay,bisexual,and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. state of Florida have federal protections,but many face legal difficulties on the state level that are not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity became legal in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas on June 26,2003,although the state legislature has not repealed its sodomy law. Same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since January 6,2015. Discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment,housing and public accommodations is outlawed following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County. In addition,several cities and counties,comprising about 55 percent of Florida's population,have enacted anti-discrimination ordinances. These include Jacksonville,Miami,Tampa,Orlando,St. Petersburg,Tallahassee and West Palm Beach,among others. Conversion therapy is also banned in a number of cities in the state,mainly in Palm Beach County and the Miami metropolitan area. In September 2023,Lake Worth Beach,Florida became an official "LGBT sanctuary city" to protect and defend LGBT rights.
Martin Adel Makary is a British-American surgeon,professor,author and medical commentator. He practices surgical oncology and gastrointestinal laparoscopic surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital,is Mark Ravitch Chair in Gastrointestinal Surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine,and teaches public health policy as Professor of Surgery and Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000 by the World Health Organization due to the success of vaccination efforts. However,it continues to be reintroduced by international travelers,and in recent years,anti-vaccination sentiment has allowed for the reemergence of measles outbreaks.
In the United States,the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in 103,436,829 confirmed cases with 1,180,025 all-time deaths,the most of any country,and the 20th-highest per capita worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic ranks first on the list of disasters in the United States by death toll;it was the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020,behind heart disease and cancer. From 2019 to 2020,U.S. life expectancy dropped by 3 years for Hispanic and Latino Americans,2.9 years for African Americans,and 1.2 years for white Americans. These effects persisted as U.S. deaths due to COVID-19 in 2021 exceeded those in 2020,and life expectancy continued to fall from 2020 to 2021.
On March 1,2020,the U.S. state of Florida officially reported its first two COVID-19 cases in Manatee and Hillsborough counties. There is evidence,however,that community spread of COVID-19 first began in Florida much earlier,perhaps as early as the first week of January,with as many as 171 people in Florida who had shown symptoms now identified with COVID-19,prior to receiving confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By March 11,the CDC saw evidence to conclude that community spread of the virus had occurred within the state.
The Donald Trump administration communicated in various ways during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States,including via social media,interviews,and press conferences with the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Opinion polling conducted in mid-April 2020 indicated that less than half of Americans trusted health information provided by Trump and that they were more inclined to trust local government officials,state government officials,the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci.
The wearing of non-medical face masks in public to lessen the transmission of COVID-19 in the United States was first recommended by the CDC on April 3,2020,as supplemental to hygiene and appropriate social distancing. Throughout the pandemic,various states,counties,and municipalities have issued health orders requiring the wearing of non-medical face coverings —such as cloth masks —in spaces and businesses accessible to the public,especially when physical distancing is not possible.
During his term as president of the United States (2017–2021),Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly politicized science by pressuring or overriding health and science agencies to change their reporting and recommendations so as to conform to his policies and public comments. This was particularly true with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States,but also included suppressing research on climate change and weakening or eliminating environmental regulations.
Jayanta "Jay" Bhattacharya is an Indian American professor of medicine,economics,and health research policy at Stanford University. He is the director of Stanford's Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. His research focuses on the economics of health care.
Misinformation related to immunization and the use of vaccines circulates in mass media and social media in spite of the fact that there is no serious hesitancy or debate within mainstream medical and scientific circles about the benefits of vaccination. Unsubstantiated safety concerns related to vaccines are often presented on the internet as being scientific information. A high proportion of internet sources on the topic are "inaccurate on the whole" which can lead people searching for information to form "significant misconceptions about vaccines".
Martin Kulldorff is a Swedish biostatistician. He was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2003 until his dismissal in 2024. He is a member of the US Food and Drug Administration's Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee and a former member of the Vaccine Safety Subgroup of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom (OAMF) is one of the main anti-vaccination organizations in Ohio. A non-profit group,it frequently lobbies politicians to favor legislative action designed to weaken Ohio's vaccination coverage.
Scott Andrew Rivkees is an American physician-scientist and pediatric endocrinologist,who served as State Surgeon General and Secretary of Health of Florida from June 2019 to September 2021. The majority of Rivkees' tenure coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Joel Rudman is an American politician and physician who currently serves as a state representative for the 3rd district in the Florida House of Representatives. Rudman resides in Navarre,his legislative district's largest community,and is a member of the Republican Party.
Ron DeSantis has served as the 46th governor of Florida since January 8,2019. A member of the Republican Party,he narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Andrew Gillum in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election. As governor,DeSantis resisted taking many of the measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 that various other state governments implemented,such as face-mask mandates,stay-at-home orders,and vaccination requirements. During the pandemic,Florida experienced above-average economic growth. DeSantis cut state-government spending,which,combined with federal stimulus payments and high sales-tax revenue,led to the largest budget surplus in Florida history. He engaged in recovery efforts after Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole,and oversaw the passage of the controversial Parental Rights in Education Act. He was reelected in a landslide in the 2022 Florida gubernatorial election;his 19.4% margin of victory over Charlie Crist was the state's largest in 40 years. He has generally governed as a conservative.
