Florida moves to end all vaccine mandates, a first in the U.S.

Florida’s top health official said Wednesday the state will work to end all vaccine mandates, including longstanding requirements for children to be immunized to attend school, positioning Florida to become the first state in the nation to unwind such longstanding public-health requirements.

Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo, M.D., Ph.D., announced the plan at an event near Tampa alongside Governor Ron DeSantis. Ladapo, a longtime critic of vaccine mandates, said the Florida Department of Health will pursue rule changes to end requirements, while acknowledging some mandates are set in statute and would require action by lawmakers.

“Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” Ladapo said to applause. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.” He did not offer specific details or a timeline for when the changes might take effect.

DeSantis framed the move as a broader effort to enhance what his administration calls medical freedom. “We’ve already done a lot. I don’t think any state has come even close to what Florida has done,” he said, adding that officials “want to stay ahead of the curve.”

What’s new?

All 50 states currently require at least some vaccinations for school entry, with medical exemptions in every state and religious or personal-belief exemptions in most. Ladapo said the administration intends to end “every last” state vaccine mandate.

Florida statute (§1003.22) requires immunizations for poliomyelitis, diphtheria, rubeola (measles), rubella, pertussis (whooping cough), mumps and tetanus, while the Department of Health has added others by rule, including varicella (chickenpox), hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) for preschool and pneumococcal disease for child care entry.

Gov. DeSantis also outlined plans for a new advisory commission aligned with his administration’s medical freedom agenda, with the panel expected to inform a broader package of health policy proposals for the next legislative session.

How it would work

Florida can move quickly to rescind mandates that exist only in agency rule, but requirements baked into state law would face a longer road, including bill drafting, committee hearings and floor votes.

DeSantis said the health department will target mandates it controls directly; for others, he said lawmakers will “have to make decisions.”

Regulatory and statutory changes would also trigger implementation questions for school districts and child care providers that currently must verify vaccination status at enrollment. Local health officials could see increased demand for exemption paperwork, while pediatric practices might face additional counseling with hesitant families.

By the numbers

Kindergarten vaccination rates have slipped nationwide. For the 2024-25 school year, 92.5% of kindergartners were vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and polio, and 92.1% against DTaP — down from 95% before the pandemic and below the Healthy People 2030 target of 95% needed to prevent measles transmission.

Exemptions are also on the rise. The national share of kindergartners with an exemption from one or more vaccines reached 3.6%, the highest on record, driven largely by non-medical exemptions.

Florida stands out in raw numbers, as state data reported to federal officials show about 5.1% of Florida kindergartners — roughly 11,287 children — had an exemption from one or more vaccines in 2024-25, the second‑highest number of exempt students in the nation after Texas.

What people are saying

Pediatric leaders warned that removing school immunization requirements could lower coverage further and raise the risk of preventable disease outbreaks.

“When everyone in a school is vaccinated, it’s harder for diseases to spread,” said Susan Kressly, M.D., FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). “We are concerned that today’s announcement will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, and have ripple effects across their community.”

In Florida, some academic public-health experts called the move “devastating.”

“You’re going to leave kids susceptible to diseases that are deadly and have lifelong consequences,” said Jill Roberts, associate professor at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health, as reported by Axios Tampa Bay.

Florida Senate Democrats also condemned the proposal on Wednesday afternoon. Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman said the state already has broad medical and religious exemptions, so families opposed to vaccination can opt out.

“Removing the mandate wholesale is dangerous, anti-science and anti-child,” she said. “Nobody wants to go back to the days of iron lungs.”

Sen. Tina Polsky warned the rollback could allow diseases that once devastated children to return. “Vaccines are crucial for our children because they protect them from deadly diseases and keep entire communities safe through herd immunity,” she said, adding that Surgeon General Ladapo “has a habit of misrepresenting science and making decisions that affect the health of Floridians.”

Sen. Shevrin Jones called the announcement “a grave public health risk” that would leave vulnerable Floridians at risk of outbreaks. “This reckless move jeopardizes the health and lives of countless Floridians — from children to seniors,” he said. “The DeSantis administration is actively undermining public health, making communities more vulnerable to outbreaks and increasing the burden on health care systems.”

The American Medical Association also spoke out in opposition to the move. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, M.D., an AMA trustee said in a statement: “The American Medical Association strongly opposes Florida’s plan to end all vaccine mandates, including those required for school attendance. This unprecedented rollback would undermine decades of public health progress and place children and communities at increased risk for diseases such as measles, mumps, polio, and chickenpox resulting in serious illness, disability and even death.

"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," Fryhofer added.

What’s next?

The health department could initiate notice-and-comment rulemaking to strike agency-level requirements, while legislative leaders decide whether to take up bills altering or repealing mandates embedded in statute.

Any repeal effort may face legal challenges and sustained debate over the impact on school safety, workforce stability for parents and the costs of vaccine-preventable disease.

In the meantime, physicians and practice managers may see more families asking about school entry without shots, request religious exemption forms or defer routine vaccinations. Practices can prepare by:

• Reviewing current Florida school and child care entry requirements and exemption procedures.
• Updating standing orders and electronic health record (EHR) prompts for routine immunizations.
• Training staff on evidence-based vaccine counseling and documentation.
• Coordinating with local health departments on any transition timelines.

The bigger picture

Decades of research credit school vaccine mandates with maintaining high coverage and limiting outbreaks. In the first half of 2025, the United States recorded more measles cases than in any full year since 1992, underscoring the risks posed by declining immunization rates.

If Florida completes a full rollback, it would mark a significant departure from the consensus approach used by states for generations — and could test how far “medical freedom” policies can go without eroding community protection against infectious disease.