{"id":51324,"date":"2021-11-18T14:11:26","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T19:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=51324"},"modified":"2021-11-18T14:11:33","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T19:11:33","slug":"florida-has-empowered-floridians-and-parents-to-make-their-own-healthcare-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/11\/florida-has-empowered-floridians-and-parents-to-make-their-own-healthcare-decisions\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida has empowered Floridians and parents to make their own healthcare decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Today, Governor Ron DeSantis was joined by Florida Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson to sign legislation that will protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and protect parents\u2019 rights to make healthcare decisions for students. The bills were passed through a Special Session of the Florida Legislature and are effective upon the Governor\u2019s signature. The legislation signed today is the strongest pro-freedom, anti-mandate action taken by any state in the nation. Read about the legislation&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/r20.rs6.net\/tn.jsp?f=001FlmvI_L2WEH6SV0f1i7gH9r4QTxQ4tr66ld2bc93TT_vePQcWKH4lWPhS7BB5CJyQ2YhNS4CY7e0rLXFdM5wGwe7WINwLL6bzUUzv5cnWt723z2rgSdRYKD5u_JkAq6B1zloMV5SRb_r2IhQVbZfP_3c5Ev3eQ_OQ7tLO2E8_FVUq7HYydKPSVVrJQMsZIISNqRUv6Nyv8oFaT6eDfBpVq3CJ3T2_gG4&amp;c=dW1jGsHK25Hyp61sBYVEpCpNjOaOI9_yZRkDyC8k-kRvz2LfcdmHtA==&amp;ch=BkBttzDUNqR7yLDO_PNKqWDh92f9wUsMpE_F42t7YblxxX9HXhA_aQ==\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HERE<\/a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ron-desantis-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42765\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ron-desantis-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ron-desantis-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ron-desantis-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/ron-desantis.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In Florida, effective immediately:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2713 Private Employer COVID-19 vaccine mandates are prohibited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Employees can choose from numerous exemptions, including but not limited to, health or religious concerns; pregnancy or anticipated future pregnancy; and past recovery from COVID-19.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Employees can choose to opt for periodic testing or PPE as an exemption.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Employers must cover the costs of testing and PPE exemptions for employees.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2713 Employers who violate these employee health protections will be fined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Small businesses (99 employees or less) will face $10,000 per employee violation.<\/li><li>Medium and big businesses will face $50,000 per employee violation.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2713 Government entities may not require COVID-19 vaccinations of anyone, including employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2713 Educational institutions may not require students to be COVID-19 vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2713 School districts may not have school face mask policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2713 School districts may not quarantine healthy students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2713 Students and parents may sue violating school districts and recover costs and attorney\u2019s fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI told Floridians that we would protect their jobs and today we made that the law,\u201d&nbsp;<strong>said Governor Ron DeSantis.<\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cNobody should lose their job due to heavy-handed COVID mandates and we had a responsibility to protect the livelihoods of the people of Florida. I\u2019m thankful to the Florida Legislature for joining me in standing up for freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, Governor Ron DeSantis was joined by Florida Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson to sign legislation that will protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to COVID-19&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":42765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[886],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51324"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51325,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51324\/revisions\/51325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}