Florida plans to eliminate vaccination requirements for students

A top health official in Florida vowed Wednesday (3) to seek to eliminate vaccination requirements, including for public school students, arguing that vaccine mandates “stem from contempt and slavery.”

State Department of Health Chief Joseph A. Ladapo announced the measure during a press conference alongside Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who became famous during the COVID-19 pandemic for opposing widespread mask use and promoting a rapid reopening of the economy.

“The Florida Department of Health, in collaboration with the governor, will work to end all vaccination mandates in Florida, every last one,” Ladapo said at Grace Christian School in Valrico.

Eliminating vaccination requirements would make the state the first in the United States to abandon a practice considered effective for decades in limiting the spread of infectious diseases.

Ladapo, a Nigerian-born, Harvard-trained physician, argued that all vaccine mandates “stem from contempt and slavery.”

"Who am I to tell you what to put in your body?" he added. "I don't have that right. Your body is a gift from God."

Every state in the country has vaccination requirements for students in their public schools, although most allow exemptions for personal or religious beliefs.

In recent decades, Florida has required its students to be vaccinated against various diseases, such as polio, measles and hepatitis B, in order to attend classes.

"We are concerned that today's announcement puts Florida public school children at increased risk of illness, which will have a ripple effect across our communities," the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics said on social media.

Ladapo has clashed with other scientists since the COVID-19 pandemic and has opposed the use of mRNA vaccines against the disease, which he compared on Wednesday to a "poison" for the body.

In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rejected in a statement Ladapo's claims that COVID-19 vaccines were life-threatening.

The initiative announced in Florida coincides with the presence of Robert Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, as head of the United States Department of Health.

Since taking office, Kennedy Jr. has initiated a sweeping overhaul of the country's health agencies and vaccination policy, firing leading experts, restricting access to COVID-19 vaccines, and cutting funding for the development of new vaccines.

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