MAHA groups in multiple states are lobbying state legislatures to ban vaccine mandates, reports Reuters.
On September 3, 2025, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, M.D., and Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans to end all vaccine mandates in the Sunshine State, and earlier in 2025, Idaho and Louisiana indicated they were working on legislation to allow for vaccine freedom.
“Idaho prohibits vaccine mandates in some instances,” reported Health Care News on November 21, 2025.
On January 14, 2026, MAHA-aligned groups launched The Medical Freedom Act Coalition, emboldened by the Idaho law and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and President Trump, “who has embraced the Kennedy-aligned ‘Make America Healthy Again’ agenda,” reports Reuters.
“Medical experts say vaccine mandates for employment or school attendance are a critical public health tool,” the news article states.
States Go Their Own Way
On January 5, 2026, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new vaccine recommendations. Nineteen states are working to design their own vaccine schedules, drawing on private organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, reports Health Care News.
States use vaccine schedules to mandate the shots for children who attend public schools, daycare, or receive health care coverage through government programs, such as Medicaid and CHIP.
Efforts to mandate bans may take on a renewed importance, but because ‘there are no exemptions to informed consent,’ the fight goes back more than four decades, says Jane Orient, M.D., the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
Informed Consent
Informed consent is a bedrock principle of medical ethics, says Orient.
“Vaccines, like all medical procedures, have both risks and benefits,” said Orient. “The (Reuters) article did not mention a great recent book, Vaccines and the Diseases They Target, created by Physicians for Informed Consent, which is a clear and comprehensive guide to both risks and benefits.
Media reporting of disease outbreaks is one reason the public needs to be better informed, says Orient.
“We constantly read about outbreaks of measles that might be blamed (partly) on unvaccinated children–rare deaths–but what about all the other mandates?, asked Orient.
“Most of the diseases are vanishingly rare, not transmitted in a school setting, mild, or treatable,” said Orient. “The risk of severe adverse vaccine effects, to which millions of children are subjected, might well outweigh benefits from a public health standpoint. But why should government authorities be allowed to require individual children to take a risk for the hypothetical benefit of someone else?”
Coverage of Measles Outbreaks
The ramped-up media coverage of recent cases of measles is a “propaganda technique called ‘flood the zone,’ wrote Peter A. McCullough, M.D., in the Focal Points Courageous Discourse substack on February 12, 2026.
“As of February 6, 2026, there have been 736 cases from 20 states, yet these have prompted roughly 32,000 – 40,000 unique U.S. press pieces covering measles cases during 2026,” wrote McCullough.
Most of the articles promote the MMR vaccine. “The outbreak—and the media frenzy surrounding it—was swiftly leveraged by regulatory agencies calling for nationwide elimination of philosophical exemptions,” wrote McCullough.
AnneMarie Schieber ([email protected]) is the managing editor of Health Care News.
AnneMarie Schieber is a research fellow at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Health Care News, Heartland’s monthly newspaper for health care reform.
