Activists, doctors clash over proposal to repeal 4 vaccines needed for kids to enroll in Florida schools

South Florida Sun Sentinel | By: Ana Goñi-Lessan | October 8, 2026

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Department of Health heard hours of public comment from parents’ rights advocates and healthcare professionals on Thursday about the agency’s move to repeal four vaccines required to enroll in state schools.

The hearing, held Thursday morning in Lake Mary, saw activists praise DOH for the proposal, while doctors and other healthcare professionals heavily criticized the move, which has been in the works for more than a year.

DOH wants to remove the immunization requirements for Hepatitis B, varicella (chicken pox), Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) and pneumococcal conjugate to attend Florida schools. The requirements are an agency rule, not in state law, and can be repealed by the agency itself.

Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said the decision would improve parents’ rights in Florida, which would then benefit the overall health of the state.

“A public health system where parents are actively making decisions and choices about their health, about the health of their children, rather than just going along with something because they don’t feel like they have a choice, leads to a much stronger public health system,” Ladapo said.

Several Florida residents traveled to the meeting to voice their support for Ladapo and the vaccine repeal, thanking him for standing up for parents’ rights and even asking him for a selfie.

The day before, Ladapo’s wife, Brianna, asked anti-vaccine mandate supporters on social media to come to the meeting to “support medical freedom.”

“If you’ve ever said, ‘Thank God for Dr. Ladapo,’ please walk the talk and stand with us this week,” she wrote in a post on X. “Bring your family. Bring friends. Share this everywhere. Fill the room. There will be an opportunity to come together with Joe and his team to thank them personally and take pictures.”

Supporters of the rule change also spoke against the COVID vaccine and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR), repeating unfounded claims, such as that doctors make money from vaccines and that vaccines cause autism. The vaccines for MMR, polio, diphtheria, rubeola and tetanus are required by state law to attend K-12 public schools, so repealing those requirements would take an act of the Legislature.

Healthcare professionals and parents of immunocompromised children, however, warned Ladapo and the DOH officials of the effects repealing the vaccine mandates would have on children in Florida.

Dr. Sarah Nosal, president of the board of directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians, urged the department to reconsider.

“Weakening school entry requirements sends a message that these vaccines are no longer important,” she said. “These four vaccines were not selected because the evidence changed. They are still vital to protect children’s health.”

Dr. Brandon Chatani, the vice president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said he was not satisfied with the lack of “adequate scientific answers” from DOH.

“I urge you to consider the children who do not have a choice in their immune status,” he said. “Their safety depends on the decision you make here today.”

Last week, DOH dropped its attempt to expand exemptions for the immunization requirements, and struck the words “sincerely held moral or ethical belief” from the proposed rule change. The exemptions currently in place must be based on religious tenets and practices.

The move to repeal all vaccine mandates, announced over a year ago by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Ladapo, is supported by the governor, First Lady Casey DeSantis and former-Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas, but no legislator filed a bill in any of the multiple legislative sessions in 2026 to remove all requirements.

Attempts to pass a “Medical Freedom” bill that would have expanded vaccine exemptions and mandated doctors to provide an alternate vaccine schedule did pass the state Senate, but failed to pass the state House.