Every state, along with Washington, D.C., requires children to obtain certain vaccinations before they can attend school or childcare. These mandates date back decades, and many public health experts consider them a foundational defense against infectious disease.<\/p>\n
Since the summer of 2025, Florida leaders have aimed to make the state the first to drop some of those vaccine mandates. The anti-vaccine rhetoric has often been positioned as a push for \u201cmedical freedom.\u201d Related efforts to revise laws and regulations rumbled along at the state health department and in the legislature for months.<\/p>\n
But by the end of April, the fight seemed to have stalled out.<\/p>\n
In the opening minutes of a special session on April 28, the Republican speaker of the Florida House, Daniel Perez, refused to bring the vaccine issue to the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is some concern here, on my behalf, about children being in school without measles, mumps, polio, and chickenpox vaccines that have been working for decades,\u201d Perez told reporters afterward.<\/p>\n
For now, at least, the push to end childhood vaccine mandates has failed in Florida, and that outcome could offer insights into such efforts\u2019 chances in other states. An Associated Press analysis found that at least 350 anti-vaccine bills were introduced<\/a> in state legislatures last year. Many focused on relaxing requirements for vaccines in schools.<\/p>\n Ladapo: Mandates Are Bodily \u2018Slavery\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Last September, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo set the stage for the anti-vaccine campaign. They held a news conference at a private Christian school east of Tampa, where Ladapo said<\/a> the state would work to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWho am I, as a government or anyone else,\u201d Ladapo said, \u201cor who am I as a man standing here now, to tell you what you should put in your body?\u201d<\/p>\n Political analysts say that the prospects for efforts to cut back on vaccine mandates are closely tied to the political prospects of Republicans trying to maintain their majorities at the state and federal levels. DeSantis is term-limited, and his governorship ends in January. And the congressional midterms are in November.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Republicans, they\u2019re a little bit leery,\u201d said Aubrey Jewett<\/a>, an associate professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. \u201cThey know we\u2019re in an election cycle. They know political history. And it\u2019s pretty clear that the president\u2019s party tends to lose seats in the midterm election.\u201d<\/p>\n Although hundreds of anti-vaccine bills have been introduced in state legislatures, the noisy rhetoric and splashy headlines don\u2019t guarantee passage, said Kelly Whitener<\/a>, an associate professor of health policy at Georgetown University.<\/p>\n In many states, including Florida, \u201cthere\u2019s a disconnect between what we hear a lot from a potentially vocal minority about how they feel about vaccines compared to where the majority of people really are,\u201d Whitener said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor most people,\u201d she said, \u201dthey still support the idea of near-universal vaccination, still understand the importance of vaccinating children to protect people who can\u2019t be vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n A national poll<\/a> last year by KFF and The Washington Post showed 81% of parents supported school vaccine requirements.<\/p>\n \u201cThey support these vaccines,\u201d said Jen Kates<\/a>, a senior vice president at KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. \u201cThey support protecting their kids through these mandates. And that includes Florida parents.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Newsletter](\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/kff-shared\/dist\/\/images\/newsletter-icon.png\"){kind=icon}
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