1 of 2 | Florida is moving to end all mandates for vaccines. Gov. Ron DeSantis (pictured in 2024) has endorsed the move and said his administration can end some of the mandates, but the Florida Legislature would have to end others. File Photo by Tannen Maury/UPI | License Photo
Decades-old Florida vaccine mandates are going to end soon, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced on Wednesday.
The state mandates vaccines for schoolchildren, including those that protect against chickenpox, measles-mumps-rubella, polio and Hepatitis B.
Ladapo likened the vaccine mandates to “slavery” and said they will end while announcing the pending change during a news conference at Grace Christian School in Valrico, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
He said the state has mandates for about half a dozen vaccines, which will be repealed.
“All of them. Every last one of them,” Ladapo said. “Who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what you should put in your body?”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has endorsed the move and said his administration can end some of the mandates, but the Florida Legislature would have to end others, The Washington Post reported.
The proposed change has drawn criticism from experts in public health.
“We can expect that measles will come roaring back,” pediatrician Paul Offit told The Washington Post.
“Other infectious diseases will follow,” Offit continued. “This is an unprecedented move that will only put our children at unnecessary risk.”
Over the past 50 years, vaccines have saved an estimated 154 million lives, most of whom were infants, according to the World Health Organization.
Vaccines generate herd immunity against particular diseases, which requires a vaccination rate of at least 94% within a defined population to attain, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Ladapo is a noted skeptic of vaccine mandates, as is U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.
