By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on Wednesday vowed to end vaccine mandates in Florida, putting the state in the middle of a growing national debate.
Ladapo said the Florida Department of Health will eliminate rules set by his predecessors and request that the Legislature “get rid of the rest of it.” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida will establish a “Make America Healthy Again” advisory committee overseen by First Lady Casey DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins.
“The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida. All of them. All of them. Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Ladapo said during an appearance at Grace Christian School in Valrico.
“Your body is a gift from God. What you put into your body, what you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God,” Ladapo added. “I don’t have that right. Government does not have that right.”
Democrats quickly called the proposal “reckless” and “horrifying.”
“If this happened, Florida would be welcoming back child-killers like polio and measles with open arms,” House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said in a statement.
“Parents have flexibility and options already, removing these requirements means that thousands more kids will likely go unprotected, putting them, their families, and communities at unnecessary risk,” Driskell added.
Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, warned of decreased immunization rates and outbreaks of preventable diseases that would put children, seniors and vulnerable Floridians at risk.
“Vaccines are one of the most effective tools we have to protect lives,” Eskamani said. “To toss aside decades of proven science for political gain is dangerous, short-sighted and will cost lives.”
Ladapo and DeSantis have drawn attention in recent years for their opposition to COVID-19 mandates, including vaccine mandates. But the proposal announced Wednesday would go much further and came as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., long known as a vaccine skeptic, has made controversial changes nationally.
Florida has immunization requirements for children entering daycare and preschool. Those requirements include vaccinations for such things as diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis, polio, measles-mumps-rubella and chicken pox, according to the Florida Department of Health website.
It also has a series of requirements for children attending kindergarten through 12th grade. Those requirements, for example, include four or five doses of vaccines for diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis, four or five doses for polio and two doses for measles-mumps-rubella, according to the website.
The state also has a process for religious and medical exemptions from the requirements.
Education Commissioner Stasi Kamoutsas, a former DeSantis deputy chief of staff, backed the effort to end mandates, saying it will “strengthen the rights that the governor has championed for years.”
Collins said parents should have the final say in what goes into their children.
“We have to protect the rights of parents to make medical decisions for their families, to feed their families how they want, what they want, when they want, because that’s their family, and it’s not the government’s choice to tell them what to eat or how to eat,” Collins said.
DeSantis said a ”broad package” will go to the Legislature. The new committee will review issues such as informed consent, parental rights and an “individual responsibility in medical freedom,” he said.
The committee will include Ladapo, Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris, Department of Children and Families Secretary Taylor Hatch, Department of Elder Affairs Secretary Michelle Branham and Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Alexis Lambert.
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DSP, you have moved the goal posts so many times, I’m certain we’re no longer on the same playing field.
Learn to control your emotion, please.
DeepStatePropagandist: Did you finish your research on how many of the 20-million illegal aliens the previous administration allowed to invade our sovereign land (aka: America) that were vetted to assure that they had received the following currently required vaccinations, before they were dumped on our streets and into our schools?
Can you cite your stated findings… or are you just diverting from the facts and going with ideological and emotions-based assumptions? Oh, and save your conflation tactics of ignoring the delineation between the terms “legal” and “illegal” immigration. Your Alinsky Semantics approach is tired.
Again, take your time, we’ll wait.
“A government forcing a populace to undergo medical procedures against their will is authoritarian. ”
It’s only against their will if they want to attend school. And we’ve literally had vaccine mandates for decades. What about the government forcing people to not have leaded paint though? Shouldn’t that be a decision each person can make for themselves? Think of the cost savings!
“The immune compromised are not my problem to solve. ”
Well, at least the compassion free reality of conservatism gets it’s time in the sun. “If it isn’t me, it isn’t my problem” The core of conservative thought. But is it the government’s responsibility to care for the more vulnerable among us? This is probably the biggest divide between me and people who keep on carrying water for a guy named 59239 times in the Epstein files.
“I’m not in favor of controlling people through violence (all government coercion is violence as the state has a monopoly on legal violence with armed police) to get my way. “‘
But you are in favor of maybe giving an immune compromised person measles. Got it. There are bunches of places without functioning governments. Try one out.
“Nobody wants to drive around here like we’re in India. ”
Check out the mind police over here. I might want to drive around here like we are in India, have you considered that?
“Laws and rules about behavior are not the same as the government violating bodily autonomy”
So naturally you support a women’s right to choose to have a pregnancy, or a person to get gender affirming care, or gay people to get married, right? Right.
And, this is about behavior and we set rules for it all the time!
Want to attend school? Get these vaccines.
Want to walk into a store? Wear shoes.
Want to fly on a plane? Don’t smoke.
“If you can’t convince people to agree with you by making a good argument, insulting them is the best way to make sure you stand alone. ”
I don’t stand alone though. Nearly everyone thinks this is a terrible idea.
“You can either understand this, or choose to remain insufferable and easily dismissed.”
Conservatives deserve to be trolled because their ideas are bad, they generally don’t care about other people (i.e., ‘the immune compromised aren’t my problem’), and they are actively supporting a guy who is murdering the economy with retarded tariffs, on top of being a guy accused of rape by three women (including his wife!), accused of sexual assault by dozens of women, and who allocated a thousdand FBI agents to look for his name in the Epstein files. On top of all of that, they seem to be pro-infectious disease as function of ‘my freedumbs’. They deserve to feel bad because they are bad people.
DeepStateProvocateur,
A government forcing a populace to undergo medical procedures against their will is authoritarian. Making persuasive arguments to convince people to voluntarily undergo those procedures is freedom. It’s really that simple.
The immune compromised are not my problem to solve. I’m not in favor of controlling people through violence (all government coercion is violence as the state has a monopoly on legal violence with armed police) to get my way. This does not describe freakin’ stop signs. Nobody wants to drive around here like we’re in India. Laws and rules about behavior are not the same as the government violating bodily autonomy. Please do reconsider your rhetoric.
If you can’t convince people to agree with you by making a good argument, insulting them is the best way to make sure you stand alone. You can either understand this, or choose to remain insufferable and easily dismissed.
@CommonSense –
“You know you’ve won the discussion when your opponent starts with the name-calling. Sorry DeepStateProvocateur.”
If someone wanted to argue that the weather was controlled by a big guy throwing a hammer around, there just isn’t a good way to approach a rational discussion about it. I’m not allowed to call that person stupid as a starting point? Why not? That person is stupid. Anyone who doesn’t think herd immunity is real is stupid. Anyone who doesn’t think immune compromised people will die when herd immunity breaks down is stupid. What’s the harm in saying so out loud? Jesus I didn’t think conservatives were triggered so easily, such fragile little snowflakes, and yet here we are.
*These proposal are flat out dangerous*. They are going to get someone killed who didn’t need to die from measles just because they happen to be immune compromised. If people don’t like being called bad people, ignorant people for championing something like that, I don’t really care. Get thicker skin.
@gozoypaz
“When one’s argument consists of ad hominem barbs and weak repartee, there is no meaningful dialogue. Stop it!”
Why? There is not a meaningful argument to be had about vaccine efficacy. They are the single greatest medical invention of all time and only behind water filtration as a lifesaving invention. Iron lungs were real. Congenital rubella was real. Small pox was real. Immune compromised people are real. Pandering to morons or saying things like ‘there is a growing debate’ is a bad thing for our society and I won’t pretend that it isn’t because a very vocal segment of the population doesn’t like being called stupid despite not believing in germ theory.
I mean, you’re clutching your pearls over how awful ad-hominem barbs, but have you given any thought toward how weak the ‘vaccine mandates are bad’ argument is from a scientific or public health perspective?
I mean, do you think a proposal to bring back leaded gasoline under the guise of consumer freedom wouldn’t deserve scorn just cause it would be too offensive to the people who liked the idea?
@Edward Lyle –
“Can you tell us – with your infinite wisdom of course. . . . ”
I don’t know that information, but I *do know* that to attend school, any of those children had to get vaccinated. What I also know is that Meatball Ron, in all of his ‘infinite wisdom’ wants to change that. Why? Is he pro-polio? Is he taking campaign contributions from Big Measles? It’s a dumb idea to pander to even dumber people. Full stop.
Why pivot to immigration? You don’t like immigrants? I’m shocked. But also, who cares?
What does that have to do with a massively uninformed and ignorant take on science though? You think immigrants should be vaccinated? Me too! I think that because I think every human has value and should be protected against disease. What’s your rationale?
You know you’ve won the discussion when your opponent starts with the name-calling. Sorry DeepStateProvocateur.
DeepStatePropgandist: Can you tell us – with your infinite wisdom of course – exactly how many of the 20-million illegal aliens the previous administration allowed to invade our sovereign land (aka: America) that were vetted to assure that they had received the following currently required vaccinations, before they were dumped on our streets and into our schools? Those currently required vaccinations being:
Hepatitis B, Rotavirus, DTaP, Hib, Pneumococcal, Polio, COVID-19, MMR, Influenza, Chickenpox, Hepatitis A, RSV antibody, and Pneumococcal.
Do take your time to research this important factor guiding your rant… we’ll wait.
DeepStateProvocateur
When one’s argument consists of ad hominem barbs and weak repartee, there is no meaningful dialogue. Stop it!
@Tally Patriot –
You should look into the existence of immune compromised individuals and the objective reality of how herd immunity works. As is tradition for a conservative, it may be difficult for you to conceive of a person that isn’t you, but give it a shot! Vaccines don’t work for everyone, just most people.
Imagine if the Meatball Ron outlawed mandates that you stop at stop signs cause freedumbs and I told you that you were free to stop at stop signs if you wanted to.
“If you want to jab your kids full of whatever the government scam is dishing out, go right ahead.”
This is retarded. Eradicating smallpox and polio wasn’t a ‘government scam’, it was a massive public health success rivaled only by water filtration.
Make Iron Lungs Prevalent Again!
Hey DeepStateP, the surgeon general is trying to end vaccine Mandates. If you want to jab your kids full of whatever the government scam is dishing out, go right ahead. No one is stopping you.
I’m wondering if this is a move to highlight the insanity of COVID’s mRNA drugs and the harm that they do. A wonderful compromise from the current position of “all vaccines are optional” to “vaccines that meet the definition as it was applied on 1/1/2020” would keep the childhood vaccinations in place and eliminate the mRNA poisons.
“State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on Wednesday vowed to end vaccine mandates in Florida, putting the state in the middle of a growing national debate.”
Yes. Like the debate about whether the Earth is flat or not.
What’s next? Florida to allow lead paint and asbestos to return to Florida construction so as to give people the freedom to live without government intrusion? Every time you think conservatives have pushed the dumbest possible agenda, they outdo themselves.