Child Vaccination — Courtesy: Shutterstock — Ira Lichi
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo declared Wednesday that the state will take action to repeal all vaccination requirements.
Florida would become the first state to do away with the long-standing, constitutionally supported practice of mandating specific immunizations for schoolchildren.
During a press conference, Ladapo declared that the state health department would take urgent action to terminate any non-statutory mandates in the state. A legislative package to repeal any remaining mandates would next be developed by state legislatures, according to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who attended the event.
Every vaccination requirement, according to Ladapo, “is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”
Since the early 1980s, school vaccinations have been mandated in all 50 states, with new kindergarteners requiring vaccinations to prevent tetanus, polio, and measles. No state mandates that students receive the Covid-19 vaccination.
Every state permits medical exemptions from these vaccination requirements for students, and the majority also permit exemptions based on religious or personal convictions. In the US, exemption rates have been rising for years; in the 2024–25 school year, a record percentage of entering kindergarteners skipped the mandatory vaccinations.
According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida had a higher school vaccine exemption rate than the national average previous school year (about 5%), and almost all of them were for nonmedical reasons.
Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement, “We are worried that today’s announcement will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, which will have a ripple effect across our communities.”
“Being with friends, sharing space, playing on the playground, and learning together is the best part of school for many kids.” According to her, close contact facilitates the rapid transmission of infectious diseases. “It is more difficult for illnesses to spread and for everyone to continue learning and enjoying themselves when everyone in a school is vaccinated. Caretakers miss employment when children are ill and miss school, which affects not just the families but also the local economy.
According to a CDC study released last year, among children born between 1994 and 2003, normal childhood vaccines, such as those required by schools, would have avoided almost 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1,129,000 deaths. Additionally, it was predicted that they prevented $540 billion in direct expenses.
According to Ladapo, vaccinations need to be a personal decision.
He asserted that “people have the right to make their own decisions, informed decisions.” “Your relationship with your body and your deity determines what you put into it. That’s not my right. That right does not belong to the government.
However, scholars assert that freedom entails obligations.
“We all regularly follow the rules that allow us to coexist in safety, and I personally want those rules to exist in order to safeguard myself and the people I care about.” We follow rules pertaining to speed limits, traffic signals, infant car seats, and seatbelts, all of which have grown more stringent over time as safety engineering and technology have advanced,” stated Dr. Kelly Moore, president and CEO of immunize.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to vaccine access.
“Like many others, I believe that every child who must go to school should have the best defense against diseases that can be prevented by vaccination while they are there,” she stated.
According to Ladapo, the state health department in Florida has the authority to unilaterally repeal some vaccine requirements, but working with politicians will be necessary for others.
Opponents of ending vaccine mandates point out that timing is crucial and that the change is not definitive.
According to Moore, the announcement will be made after the school year has begun, giving Floridians an opportunity to observe and consider what a year with low vaccination coverage looks like.
“This timetable provides decision-makers a few months to reevaluate if this is in the best interests of Florida families. As time passes and breakouts interfere with education, Floridians will probably have reasons to regret that choice,” she said.
In a statement, internal medicine specialist Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, who is on the board of trustees for the American Medical Association, stated that the group “strongly opposes” the proposal to repeal vaccine mandates.
“Decades of public health progress would be undermined by this unprecedented rollback, putting children and communities at greater risk for diseases like chickenpox, polio, mumps, and measles that can cause serious illness, disability, and even death,” she warned. “We implore Florida to reevaluate this change while it is still possible in order to help stop an increase in infectious disease outbreaks that endanger lives and health.”
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Mike has more than 30 years of experience in marketing and public relations. He once owned his own agency and has worked with some of the largest brands in the world.
