Florida’s Surgeon General, Joseph Ladapo, alongside Governor Ron DeSantis, recently declared an initiative to make Florida the first state free of vaccine mandates. This bold declaration has prompted varied reactions within the medical community.

Currently, children in Florida must receive specific vaccinations before school enrollment, including shots for Measles, Tetanus, Chickenpox, Hepatitis B, and Polio. While Ladapo mentioned there is no fixed schedule for eliminating mandates, he indicated that some could be lifted immediately while others might require legislative action for removal.

Ladapo said giving residents freedom to choose what’s in their bodies is the main priority.

“Every last one of them, every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Ladapo stated. “If we want to move toward a perfect world, a better world, you can’t do it by enslaving people in terrible philosophies and taking away people’s freedoms. That’s not the path.”

Doctors said this could have massive repercussions.

Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association, expressed strong disagreement. “Kids used to die routinely from these diseases. They don’t anymore,” he pointed out. Dr. Benjamin criticized the stance of both the governor and the surgeon general, arguing it could lead to numerous preventable deaths through their misguided recommendations.

Benjamin said vaccines are one of the greatest achievements of public health. DeSantis said he wants to have transparency.

The governor emphasized the importance of “Informed consent, making sure we’re protecting parents’ rights, and then also just being willing to challenge medical orthodoxy that’s not supported by the data,” in policy considerations.

USF Professor Dr. Jill Roberts said if she had to come up with the No. 1 public health measure in the last century it would be vaccines.

A significant concern comes from the medical community, where professionals like Roberts warn against removing vaccines. “To do anything to really take vaccines away from people, especially children, is just devastating,” Roberts commented. “At my office, it’s right next to Moffitt Cancer Center. Can you imagine if measles gets into Moffitt?”

Roberts said freedom is part of the discussion but so is potentially creating a dangerous environment for people who can’t get vaccinated and those who are autoimmune.

“The science didn’t change. At no point did it change. We actually put vaccines in place based on science and based on risk,” Roberts said. “We can look at the data before [and] the data after. And then we can see that the vaccines actually made a huge, huge impact, in large part because of those mandates. One of the things that happens when we don’t have them is that people don’t have the awareness that they’re due for a particular vaccine. That’s my biggest threat, right now, with this.”

Benjamin said the diseases we are safe from are not gone and could hurt the state in many ways.

“You have a huge tourist industry. Why in the world would anyone come to a state and bring their kids to a place where they’re much more likely to get infected?” Benjamin said.

The Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics sent the following statement:

“The Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (“FCAAP”) believes every family should have access to immunizations to keep their community healthy. Schools are an important part of that community. 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. That’s why many schools require routine childhood immunizations. 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. 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.”