Florida officials announced Wednesday that the state will move to abolish all vaccine mandates, a step that would make it the first in the nation to undo a decades-old public health practice long upheld by courts.
At a news conference in Tallahassee, Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo called vaccine requirements “wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.” Gov. Ron DeSantis stood beside him, pledging that lawmakers would craft a bill to erase remaining mandates.
The state health department, Ladapo said, will immediately begin rolling back non-statutory rules. If carried through, the change would end Florida’s school immunization requirements — a system in place nationwide since the 1980s to shield children from diseases such as measles, polio and tetanus.
Public health experts reacted with alarm. “We are concerned that today’s announcement will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick,” Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement. “When everyone in a school is vaccinated, it is harder for diseases to spread and easier for everyone to continue learning and having fun.”
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show Florida’s exemption rate for kindergartners — about 5 percent last year, largely for nonmedical reasons — already exceeded the national average. Nationally, exemption rates have been rising for years, hitting a record in 2024.
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A CDC study published last year estimated that childhood vaccinations prevented 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations and more than a million deaths among children born between 1994 and 2003, while saving $540 billion in direct medical costs.
Dr. Kelly Moore, president of immunize.org, drew parallels between vaccination and other safety rules. “We abide by speed limits, traffic lights, infant car seat and seatbelt laws,” she said. “I personally want those rules in place to protect me and the people I care about.”
For Ladapo, however, the principle is personal freedom. “What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your god,” he said. “Government does not have that right.”