Florida’s Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced on Wednesday that the state would soon be moving to end all vaccine mandates, including those that require children to be vaccinated in order to attend public schools.
Ladapo, who gained prominence as a COVID skeptic and was appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021, compared life-saving shots to slavery. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” he said at a press conference announcing the move.
“Who am I as a man standing here to tell you what you should put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should put in your body?” he said to raucous applause.
Florida would become the first state in the nation to not require children to be vaccinated in order to attend school. Currently, Florida requires schoolchildren to be vaccinated against multiple diseases including polio, measles, and hepatitis B.
Ladapo is framing the push as one centered around freedom. “You want to put whatever different vaccines in your body, God bless you. I hope you make an informed decision,” he said at the press conference. “You don’t want to put whatever vaccines in your body, God bless you. I hope you make an informed decision. That’s how it should be.”
