1 month ago
28
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
The state would be the first to scrap requirements that children be vaccinated to attend school, among other rules.
Sept. 3, 2025Updated 3:13 p.m. ET
Florida plans to become the first state to end all vaccine mandates, including for schoolchildren, rejecting a practice that public health experts have credited for decades with limiting the spread of infectious diseases.
Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, the Florida surgeon general, made the announcement on Wednesday alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican. Mr. DeSantis rose to national prominence during the coronavirus pandemic, and over time he has espoused increasingly anti-vaccine views.
“Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” Dr. Ladapo, a vocal denigrator of vaccines, said to applause during an event on Wednesday in Valrico, Fla., near Tampa. “Your body is a gift from God.”
He added that the administration would be “working to end” all vaccine mandates. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Dr. Ladapo said, without elaborating.
The announcement comes as the anti-vaccine stance of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s health secretary is causing tumult across federal public health agencies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in particular, has been engulfed in turmoil as the Trump administration has ousted experts, in some cases replacing them with people who align with Mr. Kennedy’s views.
Dr. Ladapo has faced repeated criticism from others in his field for his stances on public health. He allowed parents to choose whether to send unvaccinated children to school during a measles outbreak in Weston, Fla., in 2024, rejecting longstanding, evidence-based public health guidelines. The misinformation he spread about Covid vaccines prompted a public rebuke from the C.D.C. in 2023.
