Florida moves to end all school vaccine mandates, first in nation to do so

Florida’s surgeon general on Wednesday announced plans to end all state vaccine mandates, including for children to attend schools, which would make it the first state to completely withdraw from a practice credited with boosting vaccination rates and controlling the spread of infectious diseases.

Speaking at a news conference outside Tampa with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo said that every vaccine mandate “is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery” and called the rollback “the right thing to do.” Ladapo’s stances on vaccines and other measures intended to protect Floridians have drawn criticism from public health experts and advocates.

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“Who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what you should put in your body?” Ladapo said Wednesday.

DeSantis, who at the news conference endorsed Ladapo’s measures, acknowledged ending certain vaccine requirements would “require changes from the legislature.”

Florida law mandates students must be vaccinated against polio, diphtheria, rubeola, rubella, pertussis, mumps and tetanus, while allowing exemptions for religious and medical reasons. Getting rid of those would require lawmaker approval. The Florida Department of Health could more immediately target four vaccines mandated under its own rules: chicken pox, hepatitis B, Hemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and the pneumococcal vaccine PCV 15/20.

The Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the founder of an anti-vaccine organization, have been pushing to upend U.S. vaccine policy. Florida’s move underscores the deepening political fault lines over vaccines, a divide certain to polarize parents, communities, lawmakers and health providers across red and blue states.

California, Oregon and Washington – states led by Democrats – on Wednesday announced they were forming an alliance to coordinate their own immunization guidelines and preserve access to vaccines.

At the news conference, DeSantis also announced a Florida version of “Make America Healthy Again,” a reference to Kennedy’s slogan and agenda to address the root causes of chronic disease and childhood illness, such as nutrition.

Kennedy is scheduled to testify before a congressional committee on Thursday about upheaval at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last week, the White House fired CDC director Susan Monarez, spurring the resignation of senior leaders who cited efforts by Kennedy and his allies to restrict access to vaccines despite scientific evidence supporting immunizations.

Before his appointment helming the nation’s health agencies, Kennedy publicly questioned vaccine mandates, framing his skepticism as a personal choice involving parents, children and doctors. “If you know a vaccine is going to kill a certain number of children, do you have a right to mandate it for every child?” he said in 2020.

An HHS spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. Kennedy’s former organization, Children’s Health Defense, reposted video of Ladapo’s announcement on X, adding: “This is how you make America healthy again. Will other states follow Florida’s lead?”

All states and the District of Columbia have vaccination requirements to attend public schools, while exemptions vary state by state.

U.S. school vaccination laws date to the 1850s and have always drawn controversy about the right of the government to compel people to inoculate themselves for the public good, said James Colgrove, a Columbia University professor of public health who has studied the history of vaccines. But he said debates in legislatures in recent years have focused on establishing or expanding exemptions, not lifting the mandates themselves, he said.

“It’s a very troubling development,” Colgrove said. “It’s probably going to be catastrophic. Anyone who knows anything about public health can see this is a train wreck.”

A KFF survey published in January found 83 percent said public schools should require some vaccines for students, allowing for health and religious exemptions. This includes large majorities of Democrats (93 percent), independents (85 percent) and Republicans (75 percent).

Florida Sen. Lori Berman (D), a member of a Senate health committee, said she feared her Republican colleagues would support repealing vaccine mandates. She pointed out that they recently voted to ban fluoride from the state’s drinking water, a cause championed in the past by Kennedy.

“I would hope my colleagues would listen to science, but I’ve seen them do some things in the last couple years that make me question that,” Berman said in an interview. She said the announcement left her in a “state of shock.”

Florida’s Republican legislative leaders did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Public health experts condemned Florida’s move to lift the vaccine mandates.

“When everyone in a school is vaccinated, it’s harder for diseases to spread, and easier for everyone to keep the fun and learning going,” American Academy of Pediatrics President Susan Kressly said in a statement. “We are concerned that today’s announcement by Gov. DeSantis will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, and have ripple effects across their community.”

The head of Florida Parent Teacher Association, Jude Bruno, said rollbacks of vaccine mandates could imperil the health of students and staff. “In a state with a high tourism economy, the consequences of opening the floodgates to preventable outbreaks are especially serious,” Bruno said in a statement.

Ladapo has been widely criticized by public health experts and advocates for opposing mainstream public health guidance. He called for a halt to using mRNA coronavirus vaccines last year, citing debunked claims that the shots could contaminate a patient’s DNA. He became the first statewide health official to urge communities to stop adding fluoride to drinking water, a practice widely credited for improving oral health. Trump’s transition team considered Ladapo to serve as HHS secretary before selecting Kennedy. He has also demanded that federal agencies rethink their decades-long support of vaccination, saying last week that CDC leaders and other officials have a “cultish relationship with vaccines,” in an interview on an episode of Stephen K. Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.

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Lena H. Sun and Dan Diamond contributed to this report.

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