Florida to end all vaccine mandates, first state in U.S. to do so

Florida plans to end all state vaccine mandates, including for children to attend schools, state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, a prominent immunization critic, announced Wednesday.

The move would make Florida the first-ever state in the U.S. to withdraw from the requirements that are credited with increasing vaccination rates in communities and preventing outbreaks of infectious diseases. The rollback could result in fewer school children getting immunized against deadly viruses such as polio and measles, and comes as Florida leads the Southeast in nonmedical vaccine exemptions among kindergartners.

“The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law, all of them. All of them. Every last one of them,” Ladapo said during a news conference, adding that the state has “maybe half a dozen” shots mandated in the state.

All states currently have vaccine requirements to attend public schools, though exceptions vary by state. Florida is among the states that already allow parents to object to vaccines on religious grounds.

Ladapo said vaccine mandates “drips with disdain and slavery,” even though they are intended to protect public health. Vaccines have saved the lives of more than 1.1 million children in the U.S. and saved Americans $540 billion in direct health-care costs over the past three decades, according to research from 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 public health community. Last year, he called for a halt to using mRNA Covid-19 shots, citing false claims that the jabs could contaminate a person’s DNA.

The move comes as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moves to change vaccine policy in the U.S., gutting a key government immunization panel, canceling funding for mRNA shot development and dropping Covid shot recommendations for certain groups.