ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida will work to phase out all childhood vaccine mandates in the state, building on the effort by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to curb vaccine requirements and other health mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
DeSantis also announced on Wednesday the creation of a state-level "Make America Healthy Again" commission modeled after similar initiatives pushed at the federal level by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
On the vaccines, state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo cast current requirements in schools and elsewhere as an "immoral" intrusion on people's rights bordering on "slavery," and hampers parents' ability to make health decisions for their children.
"People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions," said Ladapo, who has frequently clashed with the medical establishment, at a news conference in Valrico, Florida, in the Tampa area. "They don't have the right to tell you what to put in your body. Take it away from them."
The state Health Department, Ladapo said, can scrap its own rules for some vaccine mandates, but others would require action by the Florida Legislature. He did not specify any particular vaccines but repeated several times the effort would end "all of them. Every last one of them."
Florida would be the first state to eliminate so many vaccine mandates, Ladapo added.
“This is stunningly reckless,” said House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, in a statement. “DeSantis wants to trade the health of our kids for media headlines.”
“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,” she said noting that the action brings back “child-killers like polio and measles with open arms.”
“These diseases devastated families and stole lives for years before vaccines were developed to protected us,” she said. “They’re all preventable, but only if our kids take the vaccines.”
Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani, who is running for Orlando mayor, echoed the same criticism, saying in a social media post that scrapping vaccines "is reckless and dangerous" and could cause outbreaks of preventable disease.
"This is a public health disaster in the making for the Sunshine State," she said on the social platform X.
Ending vaccine mandates is reckless and dangerous. It will drive down immunization rates & open the door to outbreaks of preventable diseases, putting children, seniors, and vulnerable Floridians at risk. This is a public health disaster in the making for the Sunshine State.
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, PhD 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) September 3, 2025
Meanwhile, the Democratic governors of Washington, Oregon and California announced Wednesday that they created an alliance to safeguard health policies, contending that the administration of President Donald Trump is politicizing public health decisions.
The partnership plans to coordinate health guidelines by aligning immunization plans based on recommendations from respected national medical organizations, according to a joint statement from Gov. Bob Ferguson of Washington, Gov. Tina Kotek of Oregon and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.
In Florida, vaccine mandates for child day care facilities and public schools include shots for measles, chickenpox, hepatitis B, Diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP), polio and other diseases, according to the state Health Department's website.
Under DeSantis, Florida resisted imposing COVID vaccines on schoolchildren, requiring "passports" for places that draw crowds, school closures and mandates that workers get the shots to keep their jobs.
"I don't think there's another state that's done as much as Florida. We want to stay ahead of the curve," the governor said.
The state "MAHA" commission would look into such things as allowing informed consent in medical matters, promoting safe and nutritious food, boosting parental rights regarding medical decisions about their children, and eliminating "medical orthodoxy that is not supported by the data," DeSantis said. The commission will be chaired by Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and Florida first lady Casey DeSantis.
"We're getting government out of the way, getting government out of your lives," Collins said.
The commission's work will help inform a large "medical freedom package" to be introduced in the Legislature next session, which would address the vaccine mandates required by state law and make permanent the recent state COVID decisions relaxing restrictions, DeSantis said.
"There will be a broad package," the governor said.
WLRN News Staff contributed to this story.
