An American state with a larger population than Romania wants to completely eliminate the obligation of vaccination, including for “childhood diseases”: “The body is a gift from God”

Florida authorities are planning to become the first state in the US to completely eliminate the obligation of vaccination, including for school -age children, eliminating a practice that experts in public health have considered for decades as essential to limit the spread of infectious diseases, The New York Times reports. Florida's population surpasses that of Romania and many European countries.

Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, the general surgeon of Florida, made the announcement on Wednesday with the Republican governor Ron Desantis, a former candidate for the US Presidency. Desantis arrived in the forefront of American politics during the Covid-19 Pandemic and, as time has passed, he has adopted more and more anti-vaccinary positions.

He runs a state with a population of 23 million inhabitants, larger than countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal or Greece. Florida, a bastion of US Republicans, is the third most populated US state, behind California (39 million inhabitants) and Texas (31 million)

“Who am I to tell you what should introduce your child into his body?”, Wednesday, the general surgeon Ladapo, a vocal critic of vaccines, during an event organized in an locality near Tampa, on Wednesday. “Your body is a gift from God,” he added.

He added that the administration will “work to eliminate” all vaccination obligations. “Each of them is wrong and dripping with contempt and slavery,” said Dr. Ladapo.

US states have the freedom to decide their vaccination policies

The announcement comes in the context in which the anti -vaccinist position of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary of President Trump, causes disturbances in the federal public health agencies. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in particular, has been overwhelmed by problems under the conditions in which the Trump administration fired experts and, in some cases, replaced with people who share Kennedy's visions.

Ladapo has been repeatedly criticized by his medical colleagues for his positions on public health. In 2024, he allowed parents to decide whether or not they send their unvaccinated children to school during a Florida measles outbreak, rejecting dedicated and evidence -based public health guides. The misinformation he spread about Covid vaccines caused CDC to issue a public reprimand in 2023.

The New York Times notes that it is not clear how it will look like the process of canceling the existing vaccination obligations in Florida. Generally, local legislatures in each US state establish vaccination requirements for school children; The federal government approves the vaccines for the public and issues recommendations on who should receive them.

However, Ladapo said that the Florida Health Department, the agency it leads, will eliminate the rules regarding the obligation of vaccination. The authority of his agency to regulate is provided in a state of the state requesting certain immunizations for school children.

Ladapo also said that state legislators “will have to make decisions” and that “this becomes possible”.

The Republican leaders in Florida's legislature did not immediately comment on the announcement, but rarely opposed the executive wings of the local government. Governor Desantis is considered a “star” of the Republican Party and is one of the most famous Republican leaders in the US.

Republicans enjoy a large majority in the Florida state legislature, with 86 mandates, compared to 32 of the Democrats.

“A terrible thing for public health”

Snator Bill Cassidy in Louisiana, Republican and chairman of the Washington Senate Commission, called Desantis's approach and Ladapo “a terrible thing for public health.”

“We will start to have outbreaks of preventable diseases,” Cassidy, a professional doctor, warned. He added that “there will be children who come to school with measles and infect others who either have not been vaccinated or have a disease such as cancer.”

All 50 states that make up the US have at least some vaccination requirements for children entering school, although they all allow medical exemptions, and most allow exemptions for religious or personal reasons. The number of students receiving exemptions has increased in recent years, and immunization rates have decreased, according to KFF, a research group in health policies.

So far, the Desantis administration has focused its anti-vaccination efforts on Covid-19. Florida forbids the obligation to vaccinate anti-Covid for students and has forbidden the so-called “vaccination passports”, which attest to immunization. But the state has long demanded that most children entering school be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, varicella and hepatitis B, among other infectious diseases.

Dr. Lisa Gwynn, pediatrician from Miami and former president of the Florida branch of the American Pediatric Academy, rejected the argument of Ladapo and other officials from the Desantis administration that vaccination decisions should be exclusively to parents.

“It's more than a parent's decision,” she told NYT. “It is about the elderly, the vulnerable, the immunologically compromised and how it affects our society, our community, our neighbors, our relatives,” she argued.

Florida has one of the largest populations in the US, attracting generations of entire pensioners due to its sunny climate in southern US.

What did the governor Desantis say

Mr. Desantis, who appointed Dr. Ladapo General surgeon in 2021, also announced the creation of a commission to align Florida to the objectives drawn at the federal level by Robert Kennedy Jr. The Commission will be led by Casey Desantis, the governor's wife.

“I have already done many things,” said the governor Desantis, stressing that “I do not think that any state has approached at least what Florida did.” But, he added, “we want to stay before the others.”

The announcement on Wednesday, made in the gym of a private Christian high school, was made in an atmosphere that has often sown with that of a political rally. Desantis spoke at length, evoking the period when the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020. NYT notes that no other American governor speaks so often in his speeches about that period, Desantis repeatedly reminding the availability to show the experts on topics such as the obligation to carry the masks, the obligation of the Anti-Covid or spread of coronavirus.

“The known elites were heading for coercive measures,” Desantis said on Wednesday about the beginning period of the pandemic, calling the federal workers in public health “slugi”. “We made sure that people had access to schools,” he added