Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, M.D., and Gov. Ron DeSantis are working with the legislature to end all vaccine mandates for schoolchildren in the state.
The two leaders announced their decision at a September 3, 2025, news conference.
“The Florida Dept. of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law—all of them,” Ladapo said to applause. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”
State lawmakers do not have the right to mandate vaccines and are “going to have to make decisions,” said Ladapo. “People are going to have to choose a side. … People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions.”
“The department initiated the rule change on September 3, 2025 and anticipates the rule change will not be effective for approximately 90 days,” the state health department told the Associated Press in an email.
Vaccine requirements “remain in place, unless updated through legislation,” the department told AP.
The state is not eliminating vaccine access but only mandates that force compliance.
Florida MAHA
DeSantis, on September 3, announced the rollout of a state-level “Make American Healthy Again (MAHA)” commission. Part of the commission’s early actions will be to shape a “medical freedom package” for legislative approval. The proposal would address vaccine regulations.
In an X post, DeSantis lauded Florida as “the national model for medical freedom.”
The commission will “recommend state-level integrations of MAHA principles and expanded protections for parental choice regarding childhood vaccines,” wrote DeSantis.
First Lady Casey DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins will chair the commission, which will include leadership from state agencies. Ladapo will serve on the commission.
States’ Power
“This is a huge step forward in medical freedom,” said Chris Downey, founder of VaxCalc, a website that evaluates and publicizes vaccine efficacy and safety.
“The states have the power to compel vaccination and to protect their citizens from that compulsion,” said Downey. “The federal government only has that power when it declares a national emergency, and this power needs to be removed.
“We need more states to show by example that to live free requires courage,” said Downey. “Forcing everybody to vaccinate according to a national schedule, or even statewide school mandates, shows a distinct lack of courage and a misunderstanding of health.”
Disease Doom Predictions
Although the announcement called for an end to vaccine mandates and no decease of access to vaccines, professional medical associations and politicians warned of disease outbreaks.
“This unprecedented rollback would undermine decades of public health progress and place children and communities at increased risk for diseases,” said American Medical Association Trustee Sandra Adamson Fyhofer, M.D., in a September 3 statement. “While there is still time, we urge Florida to reconsider this change to help prevent a rise of infectious disease outbreaks that put health and lives at risk.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which recently broke from tradition by refuting updated vaccination guidance by the new federal advisory panel on vaccines, said eliminating school vaccine mandates would endanger children’s health.
“When everyone in a school is vaccinated, it’s harder for diseases to spread, and easier for everyone to keep the fun and learning going,” said AAP President Susan J. Kressly, M.D., FAAP, in a September 3 news release.
A Senate Democrat described the announcement as “reckless.”
“Removing the mandate wholesale is dangerous, anti-science, and anti-child,” said Senate Democrat Leader Lori Berman in a September 3 news release. “Nobody wants to go back to the days of iron lungs.”
Idaho, Louisiana Reforms
Earlier this year, Idaho and Louisiana indicated they were in line for giving families more vaccine freedom.
In July, Idaho enacted the “Idaho Medical Freedom Act,” which prohibits vaccine mandates in some instances. Louisiana’s surgeon general announced in February an end to the state’s promotion of mass vaccination.
Lost Trust
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, parents have been increasingly questioning vaccine mandates. Driving the skepticism is reduced confidence in vaccines’ safety and effectiveness.
“Most emails I receive from parents today equate ‘pressure to vaccinate’ with ‘there is something wrong with these vaccines and this doctor wants us to do it too much,’ [which is] not trustworthy,” said Downey. “That’s what they did with the experimental COVID shot. So now all pressure to vaccinate is highly suspect, unethical, unprofessional behavior.
“If you want to be trusted, you must first be trustworthy,” Downey added. “During Covid, the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC], public health officials, and doctors lost our trust by lying again and again and again. The CDC has lost all credibility. This has made vaccine mandates a soft target in red states.”
Although most parents will continue to vaccinate their children, Downey predicts a significant decline in vaccines mandates within five years.
“There is an emerging public consensus that there are too many vaccines, given too soon, and that this is driven by profit not by health,” said Downey. “One of VaxCalc’s most popular pages is an article that compares the CDC childhood schedule to Denmark’s vaccine schedule and our very different health outcomes.”
Choice Example
Florida’s openness to removing vaccine mandates is one reason the state is attracting people, says vaccine freedom activist Susan Sweetin.
“I think we have an amazing opportunity here,” said Sweetin. “If Florida can be the emboldened one to remove these mandates, then we can show the world. This legislative session, we should show up and show [legislators] that this is what the people want.”
Giving people a choice is a matter of fairness, says Sweetin.
“In Florida right now, families who use a religious exemption still pay for everyone else’s vaccines,” said Sweetin. “The real issue is choice. Being bound to take a medical intervention to attend school is not freedom; it’s coercion.”
Ashley Bateman ([email protected]) writes from Virginia.
