The state of Florida has announced it is working to end vaccine mandates for all shots — including Covid-19, measles, and hepatitis B — for school children and residents, making it the first such state to voluntarily discontinue a practice long credited for limiting the spread of infectious diseases. 

During a press conference Wednesday, Florida’s surgeon general, Joseph A. Ladapo, told a cheering crowd that he was “excited” to announce the Florida Department of Health’s intention to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law, which he likened to “slavery.”

“Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery. Who am I, as a government, or anyone else, or who am I as a man standing here now, to tell you what you should put in your body?” Dr. Ladapo said Wednesday. 

“I don’t have that right. Your body is a gift from God,” he added. 

Currently, Florida school children entering daycare, preschool, and kindergarten-through-12th grade are required to take a battery of vaccines, including for hepatitis B, varicella, measles, and chickenpox. Children in that state without exceptions cannot be enrolled in a public school unless they have received the required shots.

But Dr. Ladapo has been outspoken in his distrust of Covid vaccines, recently speculating that the shots could contaminate a person’s DNA, a claim that has been debunked. He was also found to have personally altered a 2022 state Department of Health study to “exaggerate” the risk of heart illness for young men taking two Covid shots using the mRNA technology.

Routine childhood vaccinations for children born between 1994 and 2023 prevented an estimated 508 million cases of illness and led to direct savings of $540 billion, according to a 2024 CDC report.

In response to Florida’s announcement, a virologist, Judy Minkoff, said on X that “CHILDREN WILL DIE” as a result of Governor Ron Desantis and Dr. Ladapo’s intention to end all vaccine mandates in the state.

“Ladapo and DeSantis can go f— themselves. I cannot fathom the ignorance needed to enact a law like this,” Dr. Minkoff said on X.

On X, the co-chairman of the health and human services secretary’s handpicked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice panel, Robert W. Malone, cheered Dr. Ladapo’s announcement.

“I spoke with Dr. Ladapo yesterday -he is a measured scientist – who is on fire to change the system for the better!” Dr. Malone wrote on X.

Also Wednesday, California announced it would form an alliance with Oregon and Washington to issue its own vaccine recommendations in a “unified regional response to the Trump Administration’s destruction of the U.S. CDC’s credibility and scientific integrity.”

In forming the West Coast Health Alliance, the three blue states will coordinate health guidelines and make vaccine recommendations “informed by respected national medical organizations.”

“This will allow residents to receive consistent, science-based recommendations they can rely on — regardless of shifting federal actions,” the Alliance said in a press release.