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Florida —well, its surgeon general — announced its intent to end all vaccine mandates including for children, causing considerable outrage from public health officials nationwide.
On Wednesday (Sept. 3), Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, the surgeon general of Florida, announced that the state was making plans to end mandates for all vaccinations, including those for children. He stated that they would begin to use administrative rule to do so, as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stood alongside him at the press conference held at a private Christian high school in Valrico, just outside of Tampa.
“Who am I to tell you what you should put in your body?”, Ladapo said to the reporters and supporters gathered at the press conference. “What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and God. The government does not have that right.” After a round of appluase, Ladapo then said: “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.” He said that the state’s lawmakers “are going to have to make decisions” to do away with the state statute requiring vaccines for children. DeSantis concurred, declaring that there will be an end to most vaccine mandates, with others needing further legisltion to remove.
Ladapo has been heavily criticized for his anti-vaccine stance in the past. He earned a rare public rebuke from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2023 for spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines, and allowed parents to choose whether to send their children to school as a measles outbreak took place in 2024. Currently, the state has only a religious exemption available for parents who do not want their children vaccinated.
DeSantis echoed Ladapo’s words. “We’ve already done a lot,” he said, adding: “I don’t think any state has come even close to what Florida has done.” The governor also mentioned that there will be a commission (headed by his wife, Casey)working to align with the goals of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services – who is himself a longtime anti-vaccine skeptic who recently dictated further restrictions for those wanting to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
The news was met with sharp criticism online. Some pointed out how hypocritical the move to ban vaccines in the state was, given Florida’s near-total abortion ban. Others highlighted Ladapo’s likening vaccine mandates to slavery as disrespectful, and stated that children and the large elderly population in the state are at severe risk.
