First In The Nation: Florida To End All Vaccine Mandates

Florida’s surgeon general, alongside GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, announced on Wednesday that the Sunshine State will end all vaccination mandates, including requirements for schools.

“The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the government, is working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law — all of them,” Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo told a room of supporters. “Every last one of them.”

Ladapo went on to say that the government has no right to tell parents what to put in their children’s bodies, or their own bodies, sparking loud applause.

“Every last [mandate] is wrong and drips with disdain — and slavery,” he argued. “Who am I, or anyone else … to tell you what you should put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should put in [their] body?”

“I don’t have that right,” he continued. “Your body is a gift from God. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God. I don’t have that right. Government does not have that right.”

???? MAJOR BREAKING: The Surgeon General of Florida just announced ALL VACCINE MANDATES IN FLORIDA will be ENDED, and the room erupted.

All. Not just COVID. ALL.

JOSEPH LADAPO: “Every last one is wrong and DRIPS with disdain and slavery! Who am I, or anyone else, to tell YOU what… pic.twitter.com/Kah5LscGTo

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 3, 2025

Ending vaccine requirements for schoolchildren would be a seismic change — every state in the nation currently has school vaccine requirements. Additionally, liberal states have increasingly nixed religious exemptions for families looking to opt their children out of some requirements.

An attorney from New York, who recently won a major vaccine case in the state, told The Daily Wire that since the state did away with religious exemptions, it has also largely eliminated medical exemptions, despite the government’s claims to still accept them.

“The problem really is these New York State Department of Health regulations that were issued in 2019, that led to hundreds of children who had longstanding medical exemptions suddenly getting them revoked,” attorney Sujata Gibson said. “Many, many families have had to move out of town, get vaccinated against medical advice — some children have been severely harmed by that.”

It’s unclear how vaccine requirements will be peeled back in the state, but Ladapo does oversee the Florida Department of Health. He also noted that this vision will be possible with the help of state lawmakers, who Ladapo said will “have to make decisions” on these matters.

Gov. DeSantis has led the charge on the issue of medical freedom in the wake of the aggressive COVID policies. In 2023, for example, he signed a set of medical freedom measures into law, which banned mask and vaccine mandates and added new conscience protections for health care providers. He flanked Ladapo during the announcement to end all vaccination requirements on Wednesday.

Federally, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has moved to effectively make COVID vaccine mandates illegal by ending “emergency use authorization” for the vaccines.

“We saw the heavy-handed government with the vaccine mandates with the COVID vaccine, no longer is that possible given the landscape that we’ve created,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said. 

Related: DeSantis Removes Woke Crosswalk, Sparks Backlash From The Left