His attempt to alter the state’s vaccine policies for school children failed during the now-concluded legislative session, but Gov. Ron DeSantis said late Friday that he remains committed to seeing his policies pass before having to leave his post in January 2027.
The 2026 regular session was DeSantis’ last as governor, but the Republican could have as many as three more opportunities in the form of special sessions to strong-arm his policies through a reluctant Legislature.
DeSantis already has called a five-day special session for congressional redistricting. The Legislature also must at some point reconvene to agree upon and pass a state budget after it was unable to do so during the regular session, although no official dates have been announced.
A potential third opportunity could be the special session on property taxes that DeSantis has indicated he wants.
“There’s more than one way to skin the cat on some of this stuff,” DeSantis said when asked about having the Legislature address some of his priorities this year. “I’m committed to seeing the policies ultimately prevail. And we’ll look to see what options that we have.”
DeSantis made those remarks during a press conference at a senior living facility in Jacksonville, during which he highlighted his legislative successes and disappointments in the session.
As he has done for most of the last two years, DeSantis criticized the Florida House specifically for the demise of his vaccine proposal, which he calls “medical freedom.”
With roughly two weeks left in the regular 2026 session, House Speaker Daniel Perez all but declared the medical freedom bill in the House (HB 917) dead when he said on March 4 that his chamber would not consider any bills during the last two weeks of the session that hadn’t already been heard by a House committee.
Despite Perez’s comments, the Senate continued to debate and ultimately voted, 23-15, to pass its version of the medical freedom measure, SB 1756
The House and Senate bills were not identical, although they shared similar provisions. Both bills would have allowed ivermectin to be sold by Florida pharmacists, a permanent ban on mandates for any mRNA-based vaccines, and establishing in statute a non-medical exemption from immunization requirements for school children based on a parent’s conscience. The exemption also would have applied to children in day care.
HB 917 also would have forced a broad range of health care providers, including physicians, dentists, nurses, and therapists, to treat unvaccinated patients by amending the statutorily created “Patient’s Bill of Rights and Responsibilities” to make clear people have the right to access health care regardless of their vaccine status.
The House bill would have allowed the Florida Department of Health, the agency with oversight over medical professionals, to discipline any health care provider who refuses to accept unvaccinated people as patients or to treat them.
That provision was never part of the Senate bill.
Push coincides with increasing measles infections
The back and forth over vaccine exemptions came as the latest available Department of Health data show the number of measles cases in the state had increased to 132 as of March 7. As the cases increase, so do the number of counties with reported outbreaks. While most (98) of the cases are in Collier County, there now are confirmed cases in 13 other counties: Alachua, Broward, Collier, Duval, Escambia, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Osecola, Pasco, Pinellas, and St Johns.
About 76% of the reported cases (100) are in the 15-24 year age cohort.
Of the 132 cases, 15 are listed as probable, meaning they haven’t been confirmed. All the listed probable cases in Collier County.
During his press conference, DeSantis credited the House in 2025 for passing what he called similar legislation, and offered that he’d thought the Senate would be the obstacle again this year.
“On the medical freedom. they have engaged on that and they’ve actually been very good on it. The members, the individual members in the House, have been very good on it,” DeSantis said. referring to a bill that cleared the chamber by a near unanimous vote but ran into trouble in the Senate.
DeSantis, though, was describing a different bill.
The House in 2025 did vote to pass legislation that would have required physicians to accept unvaccinated people as patients, another position advocated by people who oppose vaccine mandates and has been endorsed by DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis. Similar to the 2026 bills HB 1299 also would have made the permanent the ban on mRNA vaccine mandates.
But last year’s House bill didn’t address school vaccines or whether parents should be allowed to opt out of them based on conscience.
In 2025, it was the Senate —specifically Stuart Republican Sen. Gayle Harrell — whose husband was a physician, who put the brakes on the bill.
It wasn’t until the mandate to treat unvaccinated patients was eliminated and the mRNA bans altered that HB 1299 received final passage from the Legislature.
Senate President Ben Albritton talks to reporters following the 2026 session Sine Die on March 13, 2026. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix) DeSantis acknowledged it was a “really tough lift” to get the Senate to agree with his positions on vaccines, and credited GOP Senate President Ben Albritton for helping to maneuver the 2026 bill through the chamber.
And despite Perez’s statements, DeSantis said he thought his health care priority would pass the regular session.
“I really believe that once it passed the Senate, I think everyone felt it was going to end up passing. I don’t know why the House, you know, didn’t put it in the end zone given that they already had passed it.”
Assistance from Albritton again?
In a media availability last week, Speaker Perez said any substantive policy not passed during the regular session wouldn’t be revisited.
“Whenever we sine die [adjourn session] I would expect things to die,” Perez told a reporter.
Albritton, on Friday suggested unresolved policy issues could be revisited during a budget special session.
The Senate president noted budgets can be accompanied by conforming bills — budget-related bills that, similar to other legislation — make permanent changes to statutes. There’s also “proviso” language in the budget that can be used to direct specific spending of appropriations, as well as implementing bills, which can make statutory changes but remain in effect for one year, like the budget.
“I’m expecting that there’ll be a conversation about a lot of things. What specifically, I don’t know,” Albritton said, mentioning the various types of bills that could be in play during a budget session.
DeSantis’ recent push on vaccines, though, wasn’t included in either the House or Senate proposed spending plans, or either chamber’s implementing or confirming bills, the Phoenix flagged during the press availability.
When asked if, given that, it would be appropriate to tie the issue to the budget, Albritton replied, “I would say that is a decision the Legislature would make. And we will see.”
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
