Overview

• Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the effort at a Hillsborough County event, calling mandates immoral and comparing them to slavery.
• Gov. Ron DeSantis backed the plan and launched a Make America Healthy Again commission chaired by Casey DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins to shape a medical freedom package.
• The Department of Health intends to roll back mandates under its authority, while mandates embedded in statute would require repeal by the Florida Legislature, with no timeline yet.
• Florida currently requires vaccines for diseases such as measles, polio, hepatitis B, varicella and DTaP for school entry, as kindergarten coverage has fallen to about 89% with exemptions rising.
• Infectious-disease experts warned the rollback could trigger outbreaks of preventable illnesses, citing longstanding evidence that routine immunization prevents millions of deaths.