Florida is once again at the center of a nationwide debate over public health, as state officials announced plans to eliminate all vaccine mandates for schoolchildren—a move that would make Florida the first state in the country to do so. The announcement, made on September 3, 2025, by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and supported by Governor Ron DeSantis, has ignited fierce reactions from medical professionals, educators, and political leaders across the spectrum.
Standing before a crowd in Valrico, near Tampa, Dr. Ladapo didn’t mince words. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” he declared, referring to the state’s decades-old vaccine requirements for schoolchildren. He went further, adding, “Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body? I don’t have that right. Your body is a gift from God.” According to coverage by USA TODAY and BBC News, Ladapo’s remarks drew immediate criticism, with many public health experts alarmed by the comparison of vaccine mandates to slavery and the potential consequences of such a policy shift.
Currently, Florida law requires children attending public schools and daycare facilities to be immunized against a host of communicable diseases, including polio, diphtheria, measles, rubella, pertussis (whooping cough), mumps, tetanus, chickenpox, and hepatitis B. These mandates, in place for decades, are credited by the World Health Organization with saving at least 154 million lives worldwide in the last 50 years—most of them infants. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about four million deaths are prevented annually by childhood vaccinations.
Despite these statistics, Ladapo’s announcement made clear that the Florida Department of Health will immediately begin repealing vaccine mandates under its direct control, while the remainder will require action by the Republican-led state Legislature. “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,” Ladapo reiterated at the event, as reported by Bloomberg and BBC News.
Governor DeSantis, a prominent figure in the national conservative movement, enthusiastically backed the plan. “We’ve already done a lot. I don’t think there’s any state that has done even close to what we’ve done,” DeSantis said, touting Florida’s record of resisting COVID-19 mandates, keeping schools and businesses open, and, more recently, removing fluoride from the state’s public water supply. The latter was accomplished through the Florida Farm Bill, which took effect July 1, 2025, and prevents municipalities from adding fluoride—another public health measure now under fire in the state.
As part of the sweeping changes, Florida also announced the creation of a “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) commission, to be led by First Lady Casey DeSantis. The commission aims to promote healthy lifestyles as an alternative to pharmaceutical interventions. “A lot of these drugs, you don’t need them if you live a healthy lifestyle. If you’re eating fruits and vegetables, you can reverse a lot of these chronic conditions,” Casey DeSantis said at the press conference. The MAHA movement has a national counterpart led by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a controversial figure known for his vaccine skepticism.
The response from the medical community and educators was swift and sharp. Dr. Susan J. Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, warned, “When everyone in a school is vaccinated, it’s harder for diseases to spread, and easier for everyone to keep the fun and learning going. When children are sick and miss school, parents also miss work, which not only impacts those families, but also the local economy.” She added, “We are concerned that today’s announcement by Gov. DeSantis will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, and have ripple effects across their community.”
The Florida Education Association, representing over 120,000 teachers and administrators, also condemned the move. In a statement cited by BBC News, the group said, “State leaders say they care about reducing chronic absenteeism and keeping kids in school—but reducing vaccinations does the opposite, putting our children’s health and education at risk.”
Public health experts are particularly worried because the announcement comes at a time when vaccination rates among children are already declining, both in Florida and nationwide. According to the CDC, only 88.1% of kindergarteners in Florida were vaccinated against measles in the 2023-24 school year, well below the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity. The rate for the TDAP vaccine, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis, is also 88.1%, short of the 92–94% required for herd immunity against whooping cough.
These gaps in coverage are not just numbers—they have real-world consequences. In 2024, Florida experienced a measles outbreak in Miami-Dade County, resulting in nine infections. The state also saw an eight-fold increase in whooping cough cases, with 715 reported in 2024 compared to just 85 the previous year. Nationally, as of September 2, 2025, the U.S. has seen more than 1,400 confirmed measles cases—the highest in over 30 years—driven largely by outbreaks in Texas and Louisiana. Louisiana, for example, reported 170 cases of whooping cough as of May 2025, already surpassing the total for the previous year.
“I would argue that this is the worst public health decision I’ve ever seen from a state health official,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, in remarks reported by Nexstar Media. “This guy will have dead children at his feet.” Emily Smith, associate professor of global health at George Washington University, told Nexstar, “A pocket of infectious disease outbreak really affects us all in this interconnected world.” With more than 40 million people—about two million from overseas—visiting Florida in the first three months of 2025 alone, the potential for outbreaks to spread beyond state lines is significant.
Political reactions have been predictably polarized. Democratic state lawmaker Anna Eskamani called the plan “reckless and dangerous,” warning of a “public health disaster in the making for the Sunshine State.” Meanwhile, Governor DeSantis and his allies frame the move as an extension of personal freedom and parental choice, with DeSantis criticizing federal public health authorities and pediatricians who refuse to treat unvaccinated children. “Unless there’s a really clear reason to put something in, then I wouldn’t do it,” he said, reiterating his skepticism of what he calls “forced medication.”
Elsewhere in the country, Democratic-led states such as Washington, Oregon, and California have responded by forming a health alliance to coordinate on immunization policy, vowing to rely on guidance from national medical organizations rather than recent federal changes. They accuse the Trump administration—particularly U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—of “dismantling” the CDC and undermining public health efforts.
As Florida moves to dismantle its vaccine mandates, the nation watches closely. The decision has the potential to reshape public health policy far beyond the state’s borders, with implications for disease outbreaks, school attendance, and the broader national debate over science, freedom, and the role of government in protecting public health.
