Florida’s proposal to eliminate school vaccine requirements is expected to take about 90 days to implement and will initially cover only chickenpox and several other illnesses, unless legislators decide to broaden the scope to cover diseases such as polio and measles, the health department announced on Sunday.
This clarification followed a request for more information, issued four days after Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s surgeon general, declared that the state aims to be the first to allow families to choose whether to vaccinate their children, rendering vaccination optional.
This move represents a significant shift away from longstanding public policy and extensive research, which have consistently indicated that vaccines are safe and effectively curb the spread of infectious diseases, particularly among children. Nonetheless, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has shown strong skepticism regarding vaccines.
The state’s plan would remove mandatory school vaccinations for hepatitis B, chickenpox, Hib influenza, and pneumococcal diseases, including meningitis, as stated by the health department.
“The Department initiated the rule change on September 3, 2025, and expects that it will not be effective for about 90 days,” Florida communicated to The Associated Press via email. The state’s public school sessions commenced in August.
All other vaccination requirements outlined by Florida law for school attendance “remain in place, unless modified through legislation,” the department stated, including immunizations for measles, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, mumps, and tetanus.
Lawmakers don’t meet again until January 2026, although committee meetings begin in October.
Ladapo, appearing Sunday on CNN, repeated his message of free choice for childhood vaccines.
“If you want them, God bless, you can have as many as you want,” he said. “And if you don’t want them, parents should have the ability and the power to decide what goes into their children’s bodies. It’s that simple.”
Florida currently has a religious exemption for vaccine requirements. Vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives globally over the past 50 years, the World Health Organization reported in 2024. The majority of those were infants and children.
Dr. Rana Alissa, chair of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said making vaccines voluntary puts students and school staff at risk.
This is the worst year for measles in the U.S. in more than three decades, with more than 1,400 cases confirmed nationwide, most of them in Texas, and three deaths.
Whooping cough has killed at least two babies in Louisiana and a 5-year-old in Washington state since winter, as it too spreads rapidly. There have been more than 19,000 cases as of Aug. 23, nearly 2,000 more than this time last year, according to preliminary CDC data.
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