Florida could end vaccine mandates

State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on Wednesday vowed to end vaccine mandates in Florida, putting the state in the middle of a growing national debate.

Ladapo said the Florida Department of Health will eliminate rules set by his predecessors and request that the Legislature “get rid of the rest of it.” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida will establish a “Make America Healthy Again” advisory committee overseen by First Lady Casey DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins.

“The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida. All of them. All of them. Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Ladapo said during an appearance at Grace Christian School in Valrico.

“Your body is a gift from God. What you put into your body, what you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God,” Ladapo added. “I don't have that right. Government does not have that right.”

Democrats quickly called the proposal “reckless” and “horrifying.”

“If this happened, Florida would be welcoming back child-killers like polio and measles with open arms,” House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said in a statement.

“Parents have flexibility and options already; removing these requirements means that thousands more kids will likely go unprotected, putting them, their families, and communities at unnecessary risk,” Driskell added.

Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, warned of decreased immunization rates and outbreaks of preventable diseases that would put children, seniors, and vulnerable Floridians at risk.

“Vaccines are one of the most effective tools we have to protect lives,” Eskamani said. “To toss aside decades of proven science for political gain is dangerous, short-sighted, and will cost lives.”

Ladapo and DeSantis have drawn attention in recent years for their opposition to COVID-19 mandates, including vaccine mandates. But the proposal announced Wednesday would go much further and came as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., long known as a vaccine skeptic, has made controversial changes nationally.

Florida has immunization requirements for children entering daycare and preschool. Those requirements include vaccinations for such things as diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis, polio, measles-mumps-rubella, and chicken pox, according to the Florida Department of Health website.

It also has a series of requirements for children attending kindergarten through 12th grade. Those requirements, for example, include four or five doses of vaccines for diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis, four or five doses for polio, and two doses for measles-mumps-rubella, according to the website.

The state also has a process for religious and medical exemptions from the requirements.

Education Commissioner Stasi Kamoutsas, a former DeSantis deputy chief of staff, backed the effort to end mandates, saying it will “strengthen the rights that the governor has championed for years.”

Collins said parents should have the final say in what goes into their children.

“We have to protect the rights of parents to make medical decisions for their families, to feed their families how they want, what they want, when they want, because that's their family, and it's not the government's choice to tell them what to eat or how to eat,” Collins said.

DeSantis said a ”broad package” will go to the Legislature. The new committee will review issues such as informed consent, parental rights and an “individual responsibility in medical freedom,” he said.

The committee will include Ladapo, Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris, Department of Children and Families Secretary Taylor Hatch, Department of Elder Affairs Secretary Michelle Branham and Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Alexis Lambert.