Florida Moves to End All Vaccine Mandates

Tallahassee, FL - September 4, 2025

Florida’s Department of Health announced plans on Wednesday to eliminate all state-imposed vaccine requirements-both for school entry and broader public programs.

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo declared at a press conference in Valrico that the department will immediately rescind its own vaccination rules and work with Governor Ron DeSantis’s office to phase out those enshrined in law. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Ladapo said, characterizing mandates as immoral intrusions on individual rights.

Under current statutes, Florida requires immunizations-including DTaP, polio, MMR, Tdap and varicella-for children in kindergarten through 12th grade, with religious exemptions available. Ladapo did not specify a timeline but noted that some mandates could be removed unilaterally by the health department, while others will require legislative action during the next session.

Medical Community Reacts Dr. Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting CDC director, called the announcement “frightening,” warning that allowing unvaccinated children into schools puts vulnerable students at risk and undermines community health. The American Medical Association condemned the move as “undermining decades of public health progress,” urging Florida to reconsider before outbreaks of preventable diseases emerge.

Democratic State Representative Anna Eskamani labeled the plan “reckless and dangerous,” predicting it could trigger a public health disaster in the Sunshine State if vaccination rates decline further.

Regional Response In direct response to growing state-level rollbacks on vaccine policy, the governors of California, Oregon and Washington announced the formation of the West Coast Health Alliance. This coalition pledges to align immunization guidelines based on national medical group recommendations and to maintain stricter vaccination standards irrespective of changes at the federal level.

Background Vaccination mandates have been a cornerstone of U.S. public health since the 1980s, credited with saving an estimated 154 million lives globally over the past five decades, the World Health Organization reported in 2024. Florida became the first state to officially advise against COVID-19 vaccination for healthy children in 2023 and did not preorder pediatric doses for the 2022-23 season.

• Reuters contributed reporting