On this photo illustration, Ruth Jones, Immunization Nurse, holds a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (brand name: Comirnaty) at Borinquen Health Care Center on May 29, 2025 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Florida plans to finish all state vaccine mandates, including for youngsters to attend schools, state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, a outstanding immunization critic, announced Wednesday.
The move would make Florida the first-ever state within the U.S. to withdraw from the necessities which are credited with increasing vaccination rates in communities and stopping outbreaks of infectious diseases. The rollback could end in fewer school children getting immunized against deadly viruses comparable to polio and measles, and comes as Florida leads the Southeast in non-medical vaccine exemptions amongst kindergartners.
“The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, goes to be working to finish all vaccine mandates in Florida law, all of them. All of them. Every last one among them,” Ladapo said during a news conference, adding that the state has “perhaps half a dozen” shots mandated within the state.
All states currently have vaccine requirements to attend public schools, though exceptions vary by state. Florida is among the many states that already allow parents to object to vaccines on religious grounds.
Ladapo said vaccine mandates “drips with disdain and slavery,” despite the fact that they’re intended to guard public health. Vaccines have saved the lives of greater than 1.1 million children within the U.S. and saved Americans $540 billion in direct health-care costs over the past three a long time, in keeping with research the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in August.
Ladapo has long stoked fears about vaccines, and his stances on shots and other measures have drawn criticism from the general public health community. Last 12 months, he called for a halt to using mRNA Covid-19 shots, citing false claims that the jabs could contaminate an individual’s DNA.
The move comes as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moves to alter vaccine policy within the U.S., gutting a key government immunization panel, canceling funding for mRNA shot development and dropping Covid shot recommendations for certain groups.
