Florida is moving to break with decades of public health practice, aiming to become the first state in the country to end all vaccine mandates, including those for schoolchildren. The announcement came Wednesday from Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, standing alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis at an event in Valrico, near Tampa.
Ladapo and DeSantis take aim at mandates
“Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” Dr. Ladapo said to applause. “Your body is a gift from God.” He went further, declaring the state would be “working to end” all mandates: “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”
Dr. Ladapo, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has often clashed with public health authorities. In 2024, he allowed parents to send unvaccinated children to school during a measles outbreak in Weston, defying established medical guidance. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already publicly rebuked him in 2023 for spreading misinformation about Covid vaccines.Gov. DeSantis, who appointed Ladapo in 2021, said Florida’s next steps would include forming a commission tied to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the current US health secretary under President Trump and one of the country’s most prominent vaccine skeptics. The governor’s wife, Casey DeSantis, will lead the new body.“We’ve already done a lot,” Mr. DeSantis said. “I don’t think any state has come even close to what Florida has done. But we want to stay ahead of the curve.”
Dr. Ladapo said the Department of Health would move to eliminate state rules, while also acknowledging lawmakers would “have to make decisions” to make it possible.Every US state currently requires at least some vaccinations for children attending school. All allow medical exemptions, and most permit religious or personal opt-outs, but the broad elimination Florida is pursuing would be unprecedented.
