TAMPA, Fla. — Florida's surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, announced plans on Wednesday to end all state vaccine mandates, including for children to attend schools, likening the mandates to "slavery."
"Every last one of the them is wrong and drips with distain and slavery," Ladapo said at a press conference in Tampa. "Who am I as a government or anyone else, or who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what to do with your body?"
Ladapo made the announcement backed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who made opposing COVID-19 mandates and precautions a central tenet of his first term in office.
All U.S. states have vaccine requirements to attend public schools with exceptions varying by state.
Vaccination rates for several diseases, including measles, diphtheria and polio, decreased among U.S. kindergartners in the 2024-25 school year from the year before, according to federal data.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the new figures in July in the midst of a growing measles outbreak, with confirmed cases that month reaching the highest level since the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.
