Florida Vaccine Exemptions Bill Expands, Mandates Remain
- Florida may keep some required vaccine mandates after all.Florida Surgeon general Joseph Ladapo made national news in September when he announced a plan to remove all vaccine mandates...
- Instead, the bill moving forward this legislative session would keep the state's statutory vaccine requirements but make it easier for parents to opt out.
- (The Department of Health is moving forward with a plan to remove four state vaccine requirements, which it can do without needing legislative approval.)
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Florida may keep some required vaccine mandates after all.Florida Surgeon general Joseph Ladapo made national news in September when he announced a plan to remove all vaccine mandates from state law.But so far, no lawmaker has any bill that would do away with the mandated vaccines, which include required shots for polio, measles, mumps adn more.
Instead, the bill moving forward this legislative session would keep the state’s statutory vaccine requirements but make it easier for parents to opt out.
(The Department of Health is moving forward with a plan to remove four state vaccine requirements, which it can do without needing legislative approval.)
A proposal that moved through its first Senate commitee on Monday, sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, would let parents decline a vaccine based on their conscience.
Current law only allows parents to cite a religious reason for exemption.
Yarborough said, “Parents need to be in the driver’s seat for every aspect of their children’s education, their health care, their well-being, anything related thereto.”
He said he didn’t believe that adding a conscience exemption would bring a major change to the vaccination rate. As of 2025, about 89% of Florida kindergartners were immunized, down from about 94% in 2019.
Yarborough said while he agrees
Florida pediatricians emphasize vaccines protect children’s health. Dr.Rana Alissa, president of the Florida chapter of the American academy of Pediatrics, told the Tampa bay Times in September that treating unvaccinated patients risks other children’s well-being.
Governor Ron DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo support requiring pediatricians to accept unvaccinated patients. DeSantis argues policies excluding these children are unfair and forceful. Ladapo previously championed a bill offering greater protections for unvaccinated individuals,though that provision didn’t make it into the 2025 legislation.
DeSantis and Ladapo also backed a bill granting doctors wide latitude to refuse procedures based on personal beliefs. Former Representative Joel Rudman, a family physician, sponsored that measure, initially with the COVID-19 pandemic in mind.
The recently approved legislation also permits pharmacists to dispense ivermectin to adults.