One of the nation’s most prominent vaccine experts, Dr. Paul Offit, spoke at a UF event on Wednesday about the importance of immunizations.
Offit, a professor of vaccinology at the University of Pennsylvania, spoke via Zoom during UF College of Medicine’s Town Hall about how vaccines are created from an expert point of view. Attendees said they gathered to hear information from the “right source” amid growing questions at the state- and nation-wide levels about vaccine safety.
Dr. Frederick Southwick, an infectious disease specialist at UF Health and faculty advisor for the UF undergraduate student organization Right Care Alliance, coordinated the event to “support the science” after witnessing a downward trend in public trust of vaccines, he said. In September, Florida Surgeon General and UF professor Dr. Joseph Ladapo announced he would make Florida the first state to eliminate all vaccine mandates.
Southwick called repealing these mandates one of the “most bizarre things” he’d ever seen. In his work as a medical professional, he said, he worked with children with various types of devastating illnesses — from pneumonia to orbital cellulitis, or swelling of the eye socket. Immunizations can help prevent those infections, he said..
Vaccinations have now become a topic of political discussion, Southwick said.
“That’s the problem,” he said. “I’m just fighting that. I’m just trying to get the truth out and save little kids from suffering these infections.”
Elise Mills, President of Right Care Alliance, said “Our goal is to provide clear, factual information and build trust within our community,” in a media release.
Keynote speaker Offit has experienced firsthand the politicization of vaccines. He recently made national headlines after the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., removed Offit from the FDA vaccine advisory committee.
On Wednesday, Offit described the decades-long process of bringing a vaccine from the lab to the public, using the rotavirus vaccine he co-developed at UPenn as an example.
“I will try and summarize 26 years worth of effort in about 10 minutes,” he said.
Vaccine development begins with animal models to test immune responses before advancing to human trials, he said. Offit then explained the idea of herd immunity, meaning a certain threshold of people must be vaccinated in the population to truly limit the spread of the virus.
He highlighted the Vaccine Safety Data Link, a computerized medical record system that monitors side effects in the U.S. population. It shows vaccines are well-researched and their safety is continuously monitored once they’re released, he said.
He used to tell people the CDC was an expert group, he said, but he no longer believes it’s true after Kennedy fired the department’s advisory team of 17 people on June 9.
According to Offit, “[Kennedy] replaced them with people who, like him, has an anti-vaccine bias.”
Now, many specialists refuse to look at the CDC as an expert group, he said.
About 30 medical students attended the event in person to see speakers live and watch Offits’ commentary during his Zoom keynote session. . Others joined the event entirely online. Several students said they went to hear from qualified sources and learn how to disseminate the right information to patients.
Shirsika Kumeta, a 23-year-old second-year UF medical student, said she attended the talk because an organization she’s involved with, Students for National Health Program, protested the Florida vaccine mandate repeal Sept. 12.
“There is just so much information out there, and I feel like it’s important to try and get information from the right sources,” Kumeta said. “I just want to ground myself and hear from people that are gonna tell me the right information.”
Anika Heuberger, a 24-year-old second-year medical student, is one of event organizer Southwick’s students. She said Southwick often says this generation has been lucky to grow up in a time of history where the impacts of many diseases are not witnessed firsthand.
“I just think it’s really important to learn about how to encourage families to make informed decisions and get information from the right sources,” she said.
Adam Fernandez, a 24-year-old second-year medical student, said he attended the talk after seeing videos of Offit online. He said he was impressed by Offit’s ability to communicate science and vaccine information to a non-medical audience.
Fernandez said health is one of the most popular topics in the U.S. today. Currently, he said, many people have been more conscious of their health in terms of their diets, what vaccines they take and the general cost of healthcare in the U.S., making this event particularly relevant.
More insured U.S. adults worry about affording medical services and bills than about housing, transportation and food costs, according to a May poll from independent research organization the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Fernandez said Offit is particularly good at presenting facts in a way that would appeal to people regardless of their beliefs.
“I think his science communication is something that I’ve been impressed with — and something I want to learn more about,” Fernandez said.
Contact Swasthi Maharaj at smaharaj@thealligator.org. Follow her on X at @s_maharaj1611.
Swasthi is the Fall 2025 university administration reporter. She's previously worked as general assignment reporter with The Alligator, and you can also find her work in Rowdy Magazine or The Florida Finibus. When she's not staring at her laptop screen or a textbook, she's probably taking a long walk or at a yoga class.
