Florida's congressional Democrats urge Gov. Ron DeSantis to reconsider eliminating vaccine requirements

Cindy Krischer Goodman, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Sep 9, 2025

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida’s Democratic members of Congress are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to reconsider a new state directive to eliminate school-based vaccine requirements.

“We feel it is dangerous to remove this cornerstone of public health that ensures children are protected from preventable illnesses and keeps classrooms safe for students, schools, and families alike,” Florida’s Congressional delegates wrote in a letter delivered Tuesday to DeSantis.

Florida’s eight Congressional representatives signed the letter asking for DeSantis to respond.

Last week, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the state would become the first to make vaccinations voluntary and let families decide whether to inoculate their children. Florida requires its 4.5 million children to be vaccinated against some diseases when they attend kindergarten. The childhood immunization rates plunged in Florida in 2025 as more parents sought religious exemptions from requirements for their children.

“We respectfully ask you to reconsider this policy and restore these long-standing safeguards,” delegation members wrote to DeSantis.

The U.S. representatives who signed say this is simply a health concern, not a matter of politics: “Preserving these protections is not a partisan matter but a bipartisan responsibility to protect our most vulnerable and ensure that our schools remain safe places to learn and thrive.”

Florida’s plan to drop school vaccine mandates represents a retreat from decades of public policy and research that have shown vaccines to be safe and the most effective way to stop the spread of communicable diseases, especially among children. It likely won’t take effect for 90 days and would include only chickenpox and a few other illnesses unless lawmakers decide to extend it to other diseases, like polio and measles, the health department said Sunday.

Ladapo previously has expressed opposition to the COVID vaccine. He said he is not concerned about a disease outbreak resulting from his new directive.

“We do have outbreaks in Florida, just like every state, and we manage those,” Ladapo told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sept. 7. “So there are no new, special, you know, special procedures that need to be made.”

Florida’s proposed change comes as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has faced growing scrutiny over his vaccine skepticism, and appeared at a Senate hearing last week to respond to critics who say he is jeopardizing evidence-based ways to prevent dangerous outbreaks.

In Florida, 82% of poll respondents say public schools should require these vaccines.

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel held a roundtable in her district in West Palm Beach with local leaders, healthcare professionals, educators, and parents to discuss the potential consequences of Florida’s proposal to eliminate vaccine requirements for schoolchildren in the state. “I’m a grandmother and to me this is a reckless, dangerous policy change putting everyone at risk, not only our children but seniors who they come into contact with,” Frankel said.

Florida’s Republican Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody did not sign the letter, nor did Florida’s 17 Republican representatives. The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

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