Everything You Need To Know About Florida’s Push To End Vaccine Mandates

As many parents and caregivers know, the childhood vaccine schedule is a rite of passage. Most babies receive their very first vaccine right in the hospital where they were born, and then they will continue to receive shots on a schedule determined by a team of medical professionals that will carry on well into adulthood.

In fact, vaccinations don't ever stop for most people, and plenty of adults get annual vaccinations and boosters as part of their well visits.

However, that could all be changing in the Sunshine State as lawmakers stated that they would make a move to ban this system.

Is Florida banning vaccine mandates? And what do the experts in the medical field have to say about this idea? You can find out more below, including when all of this could start if Florida lawmakers get their way with the vaccine bans.

On Sept. 3, 2025, Florida's state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo announced plans to work alongside Ron DeSantis and other top Florida lawmakers to ban vaccine mandates, according to the BBC.

"Who am I to tell you what your child should put in your body? I don't have that right. Your body is a gift from God," Ladapo said during the conference where they announcement was made, saying that vaccine mandates drip with "distain and slavery."

At the time of the announcement, Florida students are required to have certain vaccinations in order to enroll in public schools, which include protection against hepatitis B, polio, chicken pox, and measles.

While lawmakers didn't give any insight into what timeline they were hoping to work with when they made the unusual announcement, it does seem like they plan to move quickly. If they are successful in banning vaccine bans, Florida will be the only state in the U.S. to do so.

The American Medical Association (AMA) issued a statement in response to the ban on its website.

“The American Medical Association strongly opposes Florida’s plan to end all vaccine mandates, including those required for school attendance," the statement from AMA Trustee Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, MD read. The statement went on to call the move "unprecedented," saying that it would place people at an increased risk for diseases that could result in "serious illness, disability, and even death."

Multiple educational professionals spoke with Central Florida Public Media about their fears about the ban. “I'm not interested in having measles outbreaks, as well as polio coming back," one school psychologist said. "It's just we already have multiple illnesses that keep our kids out of school, we don't need to add to that load."

A teacher chimed in and said that they were all about putting decisions into the hands of parents, but that the line had to be drawn somewhere.

“I fully support someone's right as a parent to do what they think is best for their child, and I do think that if it goes against their religion or just their comfort level, that you know they have every right to do what they think," they told the publication. "But at a certain point, that mindset endangers others."

Whether or not Florida manages to pull of the ban remains to be seen, but for now, it seems like the experts are sounding the alarm about the possible impacts this will have.