Joseph Ladapo, a longtime vaccine skeptic, said all state vaccination requirements will be repealed.

Florida Moves to End Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren The state will be the first to repeal requirements such as vaccinations for school enrollment.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said in a speech Wednesday that children in Florida will no longer be required to be vaccinated against preventable diseases such as measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio, and hepatitis. He compared vaccination mandates to “slavery.”

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Ladapo, handpicked by Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, has long been skeptical of the benefits of vaccines and has previously been accused by public health advocates of peddling “scientific nonsense.”

Ladapo announced the repeal of all state vaccination requirements at a press conference hosted by DeSantis in Tampa, predicting the move would be “blessed by God.”

“Every one of them is wrong, full of contempt and slavery,” Ladapo said. He manipulated data from a 2022 COVID-19 vaccine study to attempt to exaggerate the risks for young men who received the vaccine.

A man in a suit looks forward.

Over 1,000 health care workers urged Kennedy to resign over his anti-vaccine policies.

“People have the right to make their own decisions. Who am I, as the government or anyone else, to tell you what to put in your body? Our bodies are a gift from God. What you put into your body depends on your relationship with your body and with God.”

Radapo condemned the lockdowns and vaccination mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, calling them “a time of craziness,” and said growing vaccine skepticism was “a manifestation of God’s light against the darkness of tyranny and oppression.”

Radapo, formerly affiliated with the controversial ultraconservative group America’s Frontline Doctors, has long criticized COVID-19 vaccines. In 2023, he urged Florida residents to ignore public health advice and refuse to take the mRNA booster shot, which he falsely claimed had not been tested in humans.

Some of his other public health positions, such as advocating for the removal of fluoride from drinking water and urging parents to refuse measles vaccinations for their children, have been called “dangerous” and “harmful to Florida residents.”

His remarks about slavery, made while at the side of DeSantis, drew attention. In 2023, Florida introduced a new educational curriculum that claimed the “whole truth” about America’s history of slavery was that it benefited the enslaved, sparking accusations of racism. Florida Moves to End Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren

The Florida Department of Health currently has strict childhood immunization requirements, which are posted on its website. With limited exceptions, all children must receive a series of vaccines against a wide range of diseases before they can attend Florida public schools.

According to a report released last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), routine childhood vaccinations would prevent an estimated 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1.13 million deaths among children born in the United States between 1994 and 2023.

The report estimated that the nationwide vaccination program would have directly saved $540 billion and saved society $2.7 trillion.

Radapo did not provide details or a timeline for the proposed repeal, but said his department would work with lawmakers and the DeSantis administration to achieve it.

“I love our legislators. They have to make a decision…People have to make a decision,” he said. “People have to take sides. I’ll tell you right now, the moral aspect is simple.”

Radapo also said, “How great would it be for Florida to be the first state to implement this program.”

Florida’s plan received praise from Robert W. Malone, a conservative doctor and prominent anti-vaxxer appointed by U.S. Surgeon General Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which replaced the independent panel he dismissed.

“Go Joe!” Malone said in a post to X. Shortly before that, he sent another tweet saying he spoke with Ladapo on Tuesday and called him “a careful scientist – who is passionate about changing the system for the better.” Florida Moves to End Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren

Credit: theguardian