Overview

• Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the state will rescind agency-level vaccine rules and pursue legislative repeal of remaining mandates, framing the shift as “medical freedom.”
• The Department of Health plans to rewrite regulations to eliminate about a half dozen requirements now, with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Ladapo saying they will work with lawmakers to remove statutory school-entry mandates.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics said Florida could become the first state without school-entry vaccination requirements and warned the change would put children at higher risk for illness and school disruptions.
• The American Medical Association called the move an unprecedented rollback that could elevate risks for measles, mumps, polio and chickenpox, citing decades of public-health gains from routine immunization.
• Citing CDC analyses, the AAP noted vaccines prevented an estimated 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations and 1.1 million deaths among cohorts born 1994–2023, as DeSantis also launched a state MAHA commission modeled on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda.