TAMPA — A bipartisan group of state lawmakers heard from nearly a dozen doctors on Tuesday who called on them to reject any proposed legislation that would remove vaccine mandates from Florida schools.
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo and Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last month in Hillsborough County that they intend to drop all required vaccine mandates for children, including those required for school attendance such as polio, diphtheria, measles, mumps, and chickenpox.
Ladapo already holds authority to remove some vaccine requirements by simple rule changes. That means that starting in early December (taking effect 90 days after the Sept. 3 announcement), school vaccinations will no longer be required for hepatitis B, chickenpox, haemophilus type b (Hib), and pneumococcal conjugate virus. That’s according to a statement sent by the Florida Department of Health that was reported by ABC News.
Others, however, including poliomyelitis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, and rubella are still in place and won’t be removed unless the Legislature opts to do so when it convenes for its 2026 session in January.
But a group of doctors – many of them pediatricians from the Tampa Bay area – urged members of the Hillsborough County legislative delegation on Tuesday to oppose any such proposals if they come before them early next year.
“We as physicians took an oath to do no harm, and I do think that silence in the face of preventable harm is, in and of itself, a kind of harm,” said Brandon urologist Dr. Neil Manimala, who is also a Democratic candidate for county commission in 2026. “We are here because we do not want to be silent when politics is injected into our children’s healthcare.”
“Vaccine requirements are not about government overreach, they are about public responsibility,” said Dr. Lisa M. Rush, a pediatrician with Health Care Alliance.
“They’re protecting the vulnerable and ensuring that our schools, businesses, and healthcare systems remain strong and resilient in the face of infectious disease. The question before us is not whether we support vaccines. That debate is, frankly, settled science. The question is, do we have the courage to uphold policies that have kept our state safe even when it’s politically inconvenient? True freedom isn’t the absence of regulation. It’s the presence of safety, opportunity, and the ability to live without fear of preventable illness.”
Dr. Ed Homan served as a member of the Florida House as a Republican representing parts of Hillsborough and Pasco counties from 2002 to 2010. He noted how highly contagious a disease like measles is and feared what could happen if an unvaccinated child spent time at Disney World or Universal Florida.
“It wouldn’t be long before this measles outbreak starts popping up all over the country, and then it wouldn’t be long after that before we figured out where is the source of this epidemic [is] in Central Florida. So think about the economic impact of our tourism industry,” he said.
Dr. Marcy Solomon Baker, director of pediatrics at BayCare Medical Group, said that after practicing for 25 years she knows that vaccines are what’s best for children and for “our vulnerable children.”
“Children that are too young to be vaccinated; children who have cancer; children who have immune problems. They depend on herd immunity. So, if other people don’t vaccinate, it puts them at risk,” she said.
Both Ladapo and DeSantis acknowledged during their Sept. 3 press conference that they had yet to speak to any lawmaker before they went public. And although legislators are filing bills daily in advance of the regular legislative start date of Jan. 13, none has filed a bill to remove vaccine mandates.
A James Madison Institute survey released in late September of 1,200 registered Florida voters found 62% against elimination of all vaccine requirements, with just 29% in support. And a survey of 631 registered Florida voters conducted by Bendixen & Amandi International taken Sept. 7-9 found 60% opposed ending vaccine mandates and just 37% supporting it.
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