Breaking: Surgeon General Calls Vaccination Requirements ‘Slavery’ as Disease Outbreaks Rise

Florida just made history—and not in the way public health experts hoped. On September 3, 2025, the Sunshine State became the first in the nation to announce the elimination of all school vaccine mandates, a unprecedented move that has health professionals sounding alarm bells as vaccination rates plummet to dangerous lows.

State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo made the shocking announcement alongside Governor Ron DeSantis at a press conference in Valrico, comparing vaccine mandates to “slavery” and declaring that individuals should have the right to choose what goes into their bodies. This decision comes at a particularly troubling time when Florida’s kindergarten vaccination rates have hit a 20-year low and preventable diseases are making a dangerous comeback.

The Numbers Tell a Frightening Story

The statistics behind this decision paint a stark picture of Florida’s declining immunity protection. According to Florida Department of Health data, kindergarten vaccination rates have dropped dramatically:

• 2020: 93.5% of kindergarteners were fully vaccinated
• 2024: Only 89.8% received required immunizations
• 2025: Rates fell further to 88.7% statewide

The decline is even more severe in some counties. Orange County saw vaccination rates plummet from nearly 94% in 2016 to about 85% in 2025, representing one of the steepest drops in the state.

Perhaps most alarming, pertussis (whooping cough) cases skyrocketed from 85 to 715 in 2024—an eight-fold increase that demonstrates the real-world consequences of declining vaccination coverage.

“Every Last One Drips With Disdain and Slavery”

Ladapo’s inflammatory rhetoric dominated the announcement, as he declared: “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” referring to vaccine mandates that have protected children for decades.

The surgeon general continued his controversial comparison: “Who am I as a government or anyone else, or as a man standing here now, to tell you what you should put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should be putting in their body? I don’t have that right.”

This isn’t Ladapo’s first controversial stance on vaccines. He has previously questioned mRNA COVID vaccines and refused to recommend measles vaccination during a 2024 outbreak in Weston, defying standard public health protocols.

The “Make America Healthy Again” Connection

This announcement didn’t happen in a vacuum. It aligns directly with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda. DeSantis announced that Florida will create a MAHA commission to “recommend state-level integration” of policies emphasizing “individual medical freedom,” “informed consent,” and “parent rights.”

Kennedy’s history of vaccine skepticism, including the long-debunked claim linking vaccines to autism, has raised serious concerns among health experts about the influence of anti-vaccine ideology at the highest levels of government.

Public Health Experts Sound the Alarm

The medical community’s response has been swift and unequivocal. Michael Muszynski, a pediatric infectious disease expert and professor emeritus at Florida State University’s College of Medicine, called the declining vaccination rates “alarming.”

“Once you get down in the 80s, like we are, we’re going to have an outbreak in Florida in the near future. Because that is really bad,” Muszynski warned.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasizes that childhood vaccines save more than four million lives every year, with studies spanning decades showing “remarkable” impact on lowering the spread of preventable diseases.

Religious Exemptions Surge as Trust Erodes

The decline in vaccination isn’t happening by accident. More Florida parents than ever are using religious exemptions to avoid vaccinating their children. The exemption rate has more than doubled since 2005, jumping from about 2% to over 6% statewide in 2025.

Some counties report exemption rates as high as 15%, according to state health data. Florida’s Department of Health notes that “the proportion of children age 5-17 years with new religious exemptions are increasing each month” with counties ranging from 1.52% to 15.03%.

The process is deliberately simple—parents need only request and fill out a form that “must be issued upon request” with “no other information” required from parents or guardians.

Real-World Consequences Already Emerging

Florida isn’t hypothetically at risk—outbreaks are already happening. In February 2024, a measles outbreak spread through Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, ultimately infecting nine children. The school had 33 students lacking at least one dose of the measles vaccine.

Nationally, the picture is equally troubling. This year alone, 462 people have contracted measles compared with just 77 in 2024, demonstrating how quickly these preventable diseases can resurface when vaccination rates drop.

In West Texas, where kindergarten vaccination rates fell below herd immunity thresholds, more than 760 people were infected with measles, and two unvaccinated children—ages six and eight—died.

The Science vs. The Politics

While Ladapo frames this as a matter of personal freedom, the science tells a different story. Vaccines have been one of medicine’s greatest achievements, virtually eliminating diseases that once killed thousands of children annually.

Florida currently requires vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, Hepatitis B, and chickenpox before school enrollment. These requirements exist because these diseases are serious, potentially fatal, and highly contagious in school settings.

The concept of herd immunity isn’t political—it’s mathematical. When approximately 95% of a population is vaccinated against a disease, it protects even those who cannot be vaccinated due to medical conditions, age, or compromised immune systems.

What This Means for Florida Families

Parents now face an unprecedented situation. While the announcement was made, Ladapo provided no specifics or timeline for the proposed repeal, stating only that his department would work with lawmakers and the DeSantis administration to make it happen.

The Florida Department of Health would eliminate state rules requiring certain vaccines first, then work to “get rid of the rest,” according to Ladapo’s announcement.

For now, current vaccine requirements remain in place, but the writing is on the wall. Parents who value vaccination as protection against preventable diseases may need to advocate more strongly for their children’s health and their community’s safety.

The Broader National Implications

Florida’s move comes as vaccination coverage and exemptions among kindergarteners nationwide increased to 3.6% in the 2024-2025 school year, up from 3.3% the previous year. Florida’s exemption rate of over 6% is nearly double the national average.

This trend reflects broader erosion of trust in public health institutions following the COVID-19 pandemic. As one Florida chiropractor noted, people “began doubting the medical establishment when they were told COVID-19 vaccines were 100% effective, but many got COVID anyway”—leading to questioning of all vaccines.

A Critical Moment for Public Health

Florida’s decision represents a dangerous experiment with children’s health and community safety. While framed as protecting “medical freedom,” the policy ignores decades of scientific evidence demonstrating vaccines’ safety and effectiveness.

The timing couldn’t be worse. As vaccination rates decline and exemptions rise, Florida is essentially removing the last line of defense against preventable diseases at the very moment when those protections are most needed.

Public health is fundamentally about collective action—individual choices that protect not just ourselves, but our entire community. Florida’s new direction abandons this principle, potentially putting the state’s most vulnerable residents at risk.

Take Action Now

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Contact your state legislators and school board members to voice your concerns about this policy change. Support organizations working to maintain evidence-based public health policies. Most importantly, stay informed about vaccination requirements in your area and make informed decisions for your family’s health.

Florida may be the first state to take this unprecedented step, but it doesn’t have to be the last word on protecting our children and communities from preventable diseases.