Florida's top health official has been forced to scale back plans to eliminate all vaccine mandates in the state, after President Donald Trump criticised the proposal and said vaccines “pure and simple work”.
State surgeon general Joseph Ladapo announced the sweeping measure at a press conference in Tampa, framing vaccine rejection as a matter of religious freedom and comparing mandates to “slavery”. He said the health department would work with the governor to end “every last one” of Florida's vaccine requirements.
However, within 48 hours, Mr Trump told reporters that vaccines should be used, saying they “aren't controversial at all” and that people who refuse them “endanger other people”. The intervention prompted a rapid retreat by the Florida Department of Health, which now says it is only proposing to remove requirements for immunisations not already mandated by law for school entry, such as hepatitis B, chickenpox and influenza.
Requirements for polio, diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, mumps and tetanus will remain in place “unless updated through legislation”. The department also stressed that all vaccines would remain available to families throughout the state.
Public health experts and politicians have welcomed the climbdown. A Democratic state representative called the original plan “a public health disaster in the making”, while Republican Senator Rick Scott noted that Florida already had a “good system” allowing parents to opt out on medical or religious grounds.
Scott Rivkees, a former Florida surgeon general who now teaches at Brown University, said Mr Ladapo appeared to be backtracking. He pointed to official figures showing childhood vaccination rates in Florida had already fallen by 10% over the past decade, and warned that removing further requirements would harm children's health without any scientific justification.
