TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The DeSantis administration’s highly publicized plan to eliminate Florida vaccine requirements has, so far, not materialized.

Even a watered-down proposal from lawmakers to make it easier for parents to opt their children out of immunization requirements died earlier this year after the House refused to take it up.

But Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t done pushing.

He’s bringing lawmakers back to Tallahassee this week to redistrict the state’s congressional seats and has expanded the agenda to include a “medical freedom” bill identical to the legislation that failed to get traction during the regular session.

Whether the push by DeSantis, who has just eight months left in office, will get the bill any further remains to be seen. House Speaker Daniel Perez has already signaled hesitation.

And the push comes as Florida grapples with a large spike in measles cases, unnerving several lawmakers.

Here’s what to know.

What is the Senate doing?

The governor and Senate President Ben Albritton have been largely on the same page this year, even as DeSantis has feuded with Perez and the Florida House.

On Friday, Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville filed legislation identical to the vaccine bill senators passed during the regular session. Though some Republican senators are opposed to the bill, it will likely pass again in their chamber.

Yarborough said his hope is for the House to take up the legislation.

“It’s very important that we do it now and not wait,“ he said. ”It’s obviously something that the governor wants to see happen.”

That legislation creates a conscience-based objection opt-out option for vaccine mandates, which would allow parents who object to a vaccine to exempt their children.

State law currently allows only for religious or health-based exemptions. And while people who want to opt out now must get a form in person from a local county health department, the bill would make the waiver application available online.

It also would require healthcare workers giving vaccines to share information, set by the state’s medical boards, about the risks and benefits of vaccines. (This year, DeSantis appointed a vaccine-mandate skeptic to the Board of Medicine.)

And it prohibits healthcare practitioners from getting kickbacks or rebates from vaccine manufacturers for giving a vaccine, and would allow pharmacists to sell ivermectin to people without a prescription.

What is the House doing?

As DeSantis has talked about forthcoming special sessions, he’s made reference to speaking with the Senate to coordinate — with no similar mention of House coordination.

Perez hasn’t issued a memo outlining his approach. But in an interview on Sunday with Miami television station WPLG, he hedged against the idea of changing vaccine exemptions.

“My concern with the vaccines is, in the middle of a measles outbreak, it’s tough for me to all of a sudden allow for children in schools to not have the measles vaccines, to not have polio, to not have chickenpox,” he said.

Perez, whose wife is a pharmacist, said he didn’t want schools where “half of the children have chickenpox again.”

When station anchor Glenna Milberg asked Perez if anything would actually come of the special session, he said he expected lawmakers to redraw congressional boundaries. He said he did not know if lawmakers would address any other topics.

What’s happening in Florida with vaccines?

Since the 1970s, Florida law has required certain vaccines for school-aged children. Students entering kindergarten must show proof of getting immunizations for polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus, regardless of whether they attend public or private school.

In addition, Department of Health rules have long required four additional vaccines: varicella, or chickenpox; Hepatitis B; Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib; and Pneumococcal conjugate, or PCV15/20.

At the end of last year, the department began the process to remove those four vaccine requirements, which it can do unilaterally. (The rule-change process is still ongoing, so the four vaccines are still mandated for now.)

The department also wants to expand the exemptions parents can use to opt their children out of vaccines, similar to what lawmakers will again consider this week.

Data shows that parents are taking advantage of existing exemptions. In 2019, about 94% of Florida kindergartners were immunized. This year, about 89% of kindergartners have had their shots.

Florida also has an elevated number of measles cases. Already in the first few months of the year, the state has reported 145 measles cases — more than in the past decade combined.

The majority are among people aged 15-24 because of a major outbreak at Ave Maria University, a private religious college in Collier County.

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