Florida plans to end all state vaccine mandates, including for students to attend schools, the state’s surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, announced on Wednesday, a move public health experts warned could trigger severe outbreaks among children, tourists and those with compromised immune systems.
Ladapo, along with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, cast the issue of vaccination as one of personal choice.
“Every last one of the them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Ladapo said at a press conference in Tampa. “Who am I as a government or anyone else, or who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what to do with your body?”
Ladapo said his agency would roll back mandates for a half-dozen or so vaccines under its authority but will need to work with the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature on a broader package of reforms. He did not specify which vaccine mandates his agency would do away with.
DeSantis, a Republican, made opposing COVID-19 mandates and precautions a central tenet of his first term in office.
“Medical freedom is something we’ve got to be very conscientious about protecting,” DeSantis said.
All U.S. states have vaccine requirements to attend public schools with specific exceptions varying by state.
Vaccination rates for several diseases, including measles, diphtheria and polio, decreased among U.S. kindergartners in the 2024-25 school year, according to federal data.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the new figures in July in the midst of a growing measles outbreak, with confirmed cases that month reaching the highest level since the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.
Dr. Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said Florida’s move was “going to be a major disaster.”
“You’re going to get multiple outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease and spread of these diseases,” she said. “These kids are going to bring it home.”
If Florida follows through with dropping all vaccine mandates, it could also impact vaccination requirements at daycares or other places that require inoculations, she added.
It could also put people who are immunocompromised and unable to get vaccinated at risk of disease and death. And because Florida is a major vacation destination, the move could spread diseases to other states.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, called the decision “reckless.”
“Every parent of a child who dies or who is hospitalized with a vaccine-preventable disease will know exactly why,” said Osterholm, who is helping organize the Vaccine Integrity Project, a group of public health and infectious disease experts formed due to concerns about changes to U.S. vaccine policy.
Shares of COVID vaccine makers were down, Pfizer (PFE.N), by 0.9% and Moderna (MRNA.O), off 1.4%.
‘NEXT GOVERNOR GETS TO FIRE THIS GUY’
President Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has long questioned the safety of vaccines and has promoted the view that vaccines contribute to rising rates of autism, contrary to scientific evidence.
Since taking office this year, Kennedy has taken steps to remake U.S. policy on vaccines, firing expert vaccine advisers to the CDC and replacing them with people who more closely share his views.
Last week, the CDC’s director was ousted after clashing with Kennedy over vaccine policy, prompting the resignation of four of the agency’s most senior officials who said they could no longer trust their ability to maintain scientific integrity.
DeSantis said on Wednesday he was establishing a commission to align the state with Kennedy’s healthcare agenda that will also provide input for a legislative package. The legislature does not convene until January.
Ladapo said, as the state’s top public health official, he lacks the authority to mandate certain vaccines.
“Your body is a gift from God,” he said. “What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God. I don’t have that right.”
Ladapo has criticized the mRNA COVID shots from Pfizer and BioNTech (22UAy.DE), opens new tab and Moderna, and in 2023 called on regulatory agencies to study what he said were their harmful effects, without scientific evidence.
COVID vaccines in the first year of their use during the pandemic saved some 14.4 million lives globally, according to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.
Ladapo also urged Florida communities to stop adding fluoride to drinking water.
During the COVID pandemic, Ladapo was counseled by Tracy Beth Hoeg, a sports medicine physician who worked for him as an epidemiologist. Hoeg opposed masks and universal mandates during the pandemic and the use of some childhood vaccines. She is now employed at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Before the White House nominated Susan Monarez to head the CDC, some media reports briefly raised Ladapo as a possible candidate. DeSantis on Wednesday again suggested he would make a good choice to take over the public health agency.
David Jolly, a Democratic candidate to succeed DeSantis as governor, blasted Ladapo on X.
“The next governor gets to fire this guy. I know I would,” he said.
CDC data shows that for the 2024-2025 school year, about 5.1% of Florida kindergartners were exempted from one or more vaccines, or about 11,287 children. As a percentage, Florida ranks alongside many states, though in absolute numbers, it is second only to Texas.
