Florida is moving to roll back all vaccine requirements, including those for schools — a decision that would make it the first state in the country to do so.
The announcement came Wednesday from Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, MD, PhD, during a press conference alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis. Ladapo, who has drawn controversy for his past comments on COVID-19 vaccines, argued that vaccine mandates violate personal freedom, even comparing them to “slavery.”
“People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions,” he said, adding that the government should not dictate what Floridians put into their bodies. He described mRNA COVID vaccines as “poison” and suggested that many who took them regret it.
Florida’s Health Department can remove some mandates on its own, Ladapo noted, but others — like those tied to school entry — would need legislative action. While he didn’t list specific vaccines, he stressed the goal was to eliminate all of them.
Currently, children in Florida must be vaccinated against diseases such as measles, chickenpox, hepatitis B, polio, and whooping cough before attending day care or public school. Public health experts warn that undoing those protections could have serious consequences.
“We can expect that measles will come roaring back,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in an interview with the Washington Post. “Other infectious diseases will follow. This is an unprecedented move that will only put our children at unnecessary risk.”
This decision builds on Florida’s long-standing resistance to COVID-related restrictions under DeSantis, including vaccine passports, school closures, and workplace vaccine mandates.
Alongside the vaccine announcement, DeSantis introduced a new “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) state commission. Modeled after federal health initiatives under current HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the group will focus on issues such as parental rights in medical decisions, informed consent, access to healthy foods, and challenging what DeSantis called “medical orthodoxy.”
The commission’s work will feed into a larger “medical freedom package” that DeSantis said will be introduced in the next legislative session. That package is expected to formally eliminate vaccine requirements still written into state law and lock in recent COVID-era policies.
Meanwhile, the American Academy of Pediatrics has taken the opposite stance, reaffirming its support for ending nonmedical vaccine exemptions for schools and warning against weakening protections that keep kids safe from infectious diseases. Photo by AVIANO AIR BASE, IT, Wikimedia commons.
