Florida is set to end all state vaccine mandates for children, officials have announced.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced at a news conference Wednesday that the state would no longer require children attending schools to be vaccinated against several of the most contagious diseases.
These include measles, mumps and rubella, polio, tetanus, chickenpox and Hepatitis B.
And likening vaccine requirements to ‘slavery’, Ladapo said the Florida Department of Health and Governor Ron DeSantis will work to end all mandates in the state.
‘Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,’ Lapado said.
‘Who am I as a government or anyone else, or as a man standing here now, to tell you what you should put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body? I don’t have that right.’
Florida previously required children attending public or private school from kindergarten through 12th grade to get a series of vaccines unless their parents filled out a form invoking a religious or medical exemption.
The new plan would make Florida the first US state to eliminate all vaccine mandates for children. It’s unclear if adults will be affected.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo (pictured alongside Governor Ron DeSantis) announced Wednesday that the state will eliminate all vaccine mandates
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that childhood vaccines save four million lives every year.
The move comes months after Idaho became the first state in the nation to outlaw vaccine mandates in both public and private sectors.
Its ‘Idaho Medical Freedom Act’ bill bars private businesses, schools and government entities from denying admission or services to a person for not having received a ‘medical intervention,’ including a vaccine, procedure or medication.
And in March, DeSantis called on the CDC to stop recommending the mRNA Covid vaccine for children to ‘defend medical freedom.’
DeSantis said at the time: ‘Guided by common sense and sound science, Florida has led the way in protecting patients’ rights. Now is the time to secure these protections and do even more to defend medical freedom.
‘Let’s keep Florida the beacon of freedom in health care, where the rights of all patients are enshrined permanently in law.’
Ladapo said Wednesday that lawmakers will ‘have to choose a side.’ He told those who don’t wish to be vaccinated: ‘God bless you.’
DeSantis also called out pediatricians this week who refuse to accept patients whose parents are against vaccination. ‘Unless there’s a really clear reason to put something in, then I wouldn’t do it,’ he said.
The announcement was paired with the creation of a Florida version of the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ commission, which will be led by the state’s first lady, Casey DeSantis.
Children attending school in the US currently are required to be vaccinated for contagious diseases such as measles, tetanus and polio (stock image)
Governor Ron DeSantis called out pediatricians this week who refuse to accept patients whose parents are against vaccination. He said: ‘Unless there’s a really clear reason to put something in, then I wouldn’t do it’
The federal MAHA movement is led by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr with the aim of overhauling the country’s health system and lower rates of chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
Earlier this year, MAHA adviser Dr Aseem Malhotra told the Daily Mail that the team could look at removing school vaccine mandates nationwide, though it’s unclear if that move is in the works yet.
Casey DeSantis said: ‘I really applaud what they’re doing at the national level with the MAHA movement.
‘A lot of these drugs, you don’t need them if you live a healthy lifestyle. If you’re eating fruits and vegetables, you can reverse a lot of these chronic conditions.’
In Florida, 88 percent of people have completed all five doses of the TDAP vaccine, which prevents tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough). Herd immunity requires 92 to 94 percent.
And only 88 percent of kindergarteners in Florida are vaccinated against measles, which requires 95 percent for herd immunity.
Florida’s shift comes as vaccine exemptions are on the rise in the US.
During the 2024 to 2025 school year, coverage among kindergarteners in the US decreased for all reported vaccines from the year before, according to the CDC.
Exemptions from one or more vaccines among kindergarteners were also up from 3.3 percent to 3.6 percent. These exemptions increased in 36 states and Washington DC, with 17 states reporting exemptions above five percent.
The CDC’s latest report published earlier this summer also shows nearly all of the exemptions are nonmedical, meaning they are for personal or religious reasons.
Vaccine hesitancy has also been blamed as a leading cause of the measles outbreak that has ravaged the US, particularly Texas. As of September 2, 1,431 cases have been confirmed in the US, a stark contrast to the 285 last year. More than 800 cases were reported in Texas alone.