Florida Looks To Become First State To Eliminate All Vaccine Mandates
Florida is moving to become the first state to end all vaccine mandates, including those for school-age kids.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and the state’s Surgeon General, Joseph Ladapo, announced Wednesday that they plan to eliminate every existing vaccine directive in the state.
Ladapo, a longtime vaccine skeptic, argues that the government should not decide what people or children put in their bodies.
“Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” he said.
State lawmakers will need to vote on a full repeal of all mandates, but the state can kill a couple vaccine requirements in the interim. If carried out, Florida’s policy would overturn a practice that public health and medical experts say has limited the spread of measles, polio, and other infectious diseases for decades.
ZOOM IN ON FLORIDA
Florida law requires students get vaccinated for polio, diphtheria, measles, rubella, mumps, pertussis, and tetanus — with medical and religious exemptions allowed.
The state has already faced controversy under Ladapo, including his decision during a 2024 measles outbreak to allow unvaccinated children to attend school.
During the pandemic, the state rejected many COVID-era mandates — including vaccine requirements for kids, prolonged school closures, and worker vaccination rules. DeSantis is looking to double down on his fight with public health officials.
The DeSantis of it: The governor, barred by term limits, cannot run for a third term in 2026. Following his failed 2024 presidential bid, he is looking to stay on the national stage with hardline immigration moves and proposals to eliminate state property taxes. Rolling back vaccine guidelines is the latest move to grab headlines.
Blue states: Governors in Washington, Oregon, and California announced a new alliance Wednesday to develop independent vaccine guidelines, saying, “The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences.”
COULD THIS GO NATIONAL?
All 50 states currently require at least some vaccinations for school entry. But, vaccine hesitancy is at an all-time high — with 4.1% kindergartners receiving vaccine exemptions in the 2024–25 school year, up from 3.7% the year before and the most the CDC has recorded.
Former acting CDC director Dr. Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, believes vaccine exemptions will likely keep rising as long as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. remains in office.
Kennedy founded an anti-vaccine organization and has moved to upend U.S. vaccine policy.
More than 1,000 current and former HHS employees have signed an open letter urging Kennedy Jr. to resign, accusing him of endangering public health.
Still, most Americans support vaccine requirements for public school students, KFF data shows.
