Florida’s surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, stood next to the governor and said the state would move to end every vaccine mandate it can — starting with school requirements for diseases like measles and polio — casting mandates as an assault on “bodily autonomy.”
But removing vaccine mandates would require the Florida legislature to change current statutes, and that’s not something the legislature is ready or willing to do, three representatives told me today.
“Hard pass,” a Republican state house member told me over text messages.
“Even the White House isn’t on board with this for now,” said another.
And today, Senator Rick Scott openly opposed the push to remove mandates.
"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," Scott told Axios.
That immediate pushback has already resulted in vague threats from Ladapo.
"People are going to have to choose a side,” Ladapo said.
Florida has already fallen below target in vaccination rates, and recent outbreaks of measles bring the risk to the forefront of concern.
“All it takes is one child traveling to an endemic country and coming back to school with measles. Or going to a state with a live outbreak,” said Dorit Reiss, a University of California Law Professor who specializes in vaccine law.
“Vaccine mandates did not always exist in all states, but part of the reason of the move to all states having them in the 1980s was data showing mandates reduce outbreaks,” said Reiss.
“We may be going back to a natural experiment where some states will see more outbreaks as their laws weaken,” Reiss added.
Pressure coming from HHS in Idaho, West Virginia and Texas may lead other Republican-controlled states to weaken laws, as well.
One potential hold out is Mississippi, which has one of the strictest vaccine laws in the country with no allowance for religious or philosophical exemptions, and consequently one of the highest compliance rates in the country.
“I strongly doubt that [Mississippi] would ever do anything like Florida,” said Dr. Justin Turner, former Chief Medical Officer for the Mississippi Department of Health. “I can see [Surgeon General] Dr. Edney dying on that hill.”
Florida’s debate is likely to continue in the months ahead, with lawmakers, health officials, and families weighing in on the balance between DeSantis’ fear-mongering and public health and safety.
The stakes are immediate: with vaccination coverage already sliding and measles outbreaks appearing across the country, the dismantling of Florida’s mandates could accelerate a return to the kinds of epidemics parents and doctors thought were long behind us.
Whether legislators hold the line or cave to political pressure, the consequences will be measured not in votes but in infections.
Click here to find your Florida legislators and tell them NO to removing mandates.
Florida’s surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, stood next to the governor and said the state would move to end every vaccine mandate it can — starting with school requirements for diseases like measles and polio — casting mandates as an assault on “bodily autonomy.”
Ladapo is a lunatic, and that has nothing to do with him being Black (same for Clarence Thomas). An assault on “bodily autonomy”? What do you call Florida’s six-week abortion ban and restrictions on transgender medical care? Super-hypocrites!