Florida aims to drop some school vaccine requirements – including several backed by Trump

Florida aims to drop some school vaccine requirements – including several backed by Trump Last year, Florida’s surgeon general said he hoped to end vaccine mandates in the state – equating them to a form of ‘slavery’ - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Florida health officials are trying to make good on their promise to end all vaccine requirements by introducing a new rule that would drop four required immunizations for public and private school attendance. Under the proposed rule change, children would no longer have to be vaccinated against chickenpox, Hepatitis B, Hib – otherwise known as Haemophilus influenzae type b – and pneumococcal disease to attend school. The rule is only a proposal for now. Florida children are still required to have all four vaccines to attend school. Though Florida’s suggested change comes shortly after President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for a new childhood vaccine schedule, it clashes with the president’s order. Trump has supported children being vaccinated against chickenpox, Hib and pneumococcal disease. Rather, Florida’s proposed rule aligns with an effort by the state’s surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, who has a history of promoting health-related misinformation. Last year, Ladapo vowed to end every single vaccine mandate, equating the requirements to “slavery.” When asked about Florida’s proposed vaccine mandate change, the White House pointed to Trump’s comments from the Oval Office last year when he rebuffed the notion that all vaccines were optional. “I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don’t have to be vaccinated,” Trump said at the time. The president touted that some vaccines are “amazing,” such as the polio vaccine. “Look, you have vaccines that work; they just pure and simple work. They’re not controversial at all. And I think those vaccines should be used. Otherwise, some people are going to catch it, and they endanger other people,” Trump said. Though he did not expand on what he believed were non-controversial vaccines. The Independent has asked the Florida Department of Health for comment. In addition to dropping the four required vaccines, Florida’s proposed rule change would also update its religious exemption form to allow parents to opt out of vaccines for “moral and ethical beliefs.” The proposed rule change is currently in a comment period where people can provide feedback on it. Some Florida vaccines are required under state law, including those for polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria and tetanus. Florida officials would not be able to roll back requirements for those, as it would require sign-off from the state legislature. Every state requires vaccines for school-aged children to prevent the spread of deadly diseases. Studies have shown that state laws requiring childhood vaccines have a “remarkable” impact on lowering the spread of preventable diseases, “particularly in school-aged populations.” The CDC estimates that childhood vaccines save more than four million lives every year worldwide. But Ladapo has insisted that vaccine mandates are “wrong,” claiming it “drips with disdain and slavery.” “Who am I as a government or anyone else, or as a man standing here now, to tell you what you should put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should be putting in their body? I don’t have that right,” Ladapo said at a press conference in September 2025. Trump and his Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have spent much of the president’s second term dismantling public trust in long-held vaccination recommendations. Kennedy has sought to undermine vaccines by firing members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory board; hiring fellow vaccine skeptics; reducing the CDC’s communications with the public and canceling studies on mRNA vaccines. Both Trump and Kennedy have promoted debunked theories about the linkage between vaccines and autism – despite there being no scientific evidence of such. Measles cases have also gone up in the U.S. as Kennedy has a history of sowing doubt in the vaccine. Trump’s executive order, issued earlier this month, recommended reducing childhood vaccines from 17 to 11 and calling for more studies into childhood vaccines – though they have been extensively studied. While Trump’s executive order still recommends three of the four vaccines that Florida is seeking to unmandate, it does reclassify the Hepatitis B vaccine for only those in “high risk” groups. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments