Ladapo: Eliminating vaccine mandates isn’t about science, it’s about parents’ rights

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo told a Lake Mary rule workshop that the state's push to eliminate four school vaccine mandates (Hib, hepatitis B, varicella, and pneumococcal conjugate) has nothing to do with vaccine safety or effectiveness and everything to do with parental rights. The Department of Health is also proposing to add moral and conscientious objections to existing medical and religious exemptions.

Opponents at the hearing, including a parent and healthcare advocate, argued the Department of Health should be concerned with public health outcomes, not parental autonomy alone, warning that eliminating mandates could cause insurers to stop covering the vaccines and leave low-income, uninsured families most exposed. Some supporters of the rollback invoked autism-vaccine links, a theory debunked by numerous large studies since it was first proposed in 1988.

Governor DeSantis and Ladapo have pursued this goal since last year after legislative attempts failed twice; the administration is now pursuing the change administratively through the rulemaking process, with public testimony unrestricted because it was formally a rule hearing.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.