WASHINGTON ‒ President Donald Trump said Americans should take vaccines that are "not controversial" as he distanced himself from Florida's plans to end all vaccine mandates including for schoolchildren.
Trump gave one of his clearest defenses of vaccines on Sept. 5 in response to a question from a reporter who asked for his position on the new controversial Florida policy pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration. The president's remarks came as his own Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is under fire amid turmoil in the CDC sparked by Kennedy's vaccine skepticism.
"I think we have to be very careful," Trump said when asked about Florida's plans to phase out vaccine mandates. "Look, you have some vaccines that are so amazing."
More: A state hasn't removed vaccine mandates for 45 years. Can Florida do it?
Trump touted the polio vaccine, calling it "amazing," and added that "a lot of people that the COVID (vaccine) is amazing."
