Florida official dismisses need for study to end vaccine mandate

María Paula Mijares Torres, Bloomberg News on Sep 7, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said there’s no need to do projections of the potential effects of ending vaccine mandates for children, as Governor Ron DeSantis pushes to make his state the first one to scrap immunization requirements.

“We don’t need to do any projections,” Ladapo said Sunday on CNN’s "State of the Union." “We handle outbreaks all the time. So there’s nothing special that we would need to do.”

Ladapo said the move to end vaccine requirements is a way to reclaim “sovereignty over your body” and give parents the choice.

Florida’s plan is intensifying political battles over state-level public health approaches. On Wednesday, the Democratic governors of California, Oregon and Washington unveiled plans to form a health partnership following the firing of the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after a spat over vaccine policy. They said the initiative will, in part, focus on rebuilding trust in vaccines.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who heads the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, drew fire last week for his decision-making on vaccines as he accused U.S. health agencies of lying about safety.

When President Donald Trump was asked about vaccines on Friday, he sounded a more positive note.

“Look, you have vaccines that work,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “They’re not controversial at all and I think those vaccines should be used. Otherwise, some people are going to catch it and they endanger other people. And when you don’t have controversy at all, I think people should take it.”

Senator Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, dismissed the state’s latest steps. “Florida already has a good system that allows families to opt out based on religious and personal beliefs, which balances our children’s health and parents’ rights,” he told Axios on Thursday.

Similarly, Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana and a doctor who chairs the health committee, blasted Florida’s plan to end child vaccine mandates.

“It’s a terrible thing for public health, and we’re going to start having vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks at school,” the Louisiana senator told reporters last week at the US Capitol. “That is not guided by any sort of epidemiological data, and you are going to have children who come to school with measles and infect other people.”

_____