Florida plans to end vaccine mandates statewide, including for schoolchildren
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo said Wednesday that the state will work toward ending all vaccine mandates
By Deidre McPhillips, Shawn Nottingham, CNN
(CNN) — Florida will move to end all vaccine mandates in the state, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo announced Wednesday.
The move would make Florida the first state to end a longstanding – and constitutionally upheld – practice of requiring certain vaccines for school students.
The state health department will immediately move to end all non-statutory mandates in the state, Ladapo said at a news conference. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was also at the event, said state lawmakers would then look into developing a legislative package to end any remaining mandates.
Ladapo said that every vaccine mandate “is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”
All 50 states have had school immunization requirements since the beginning of the 1980s, with incoming kindergartners needing shots to protect against diseases including measles, polio and tetanus. No states require a Covid-19 vaccine for schoolchildren.
All states allow medical exemptions from these school vaccine mandates, and most also allow for exemptions due to personal or religious beliefs. Exemption rates have been on the rise for years in the US, with a record share of incoming kindergartners skipping the required shots in the 2024-25 school year.
Florida’s school vaccine exemption rate last school year– about 5% – was higher than the national average, data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows, and nearly all were for nonmedical reasons.
“We are concerned that today’s announcement will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, which will have a ripple effect across our communities,” Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement.
“For many kids, the best part of school is being with friends – sharing space, playing on the playground, and learning together. Close contact makes it easy for contagious diseases to spread quickly,” she said. “When everyone in a school is vaccinated, it is harder for diseases to spread and easier for everyone to continue learning and having fun. When children are sick and miss school caregivers also miss work, which not only impacts those families but also the local economy.”
The-CNN-Wire
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