Florida’s surgeon general Joseph Ladapo admitted that the state’s health department didn’t do any data analysis on the possible impact removing vaccine mandates might have on Florida’s broader health.
“Ultimately, this is an issue very clearly of parents’ rights,” Ladapo said Sunday on CNN. “So do I need to analyze whether it’s appropriate for parents to be able to decide what goes into their children’s bodies? I don’t need to do an analysis on that.”
Ladapo’s admission comes a few days after he announced Wednesday that Florida would soon become the first state to end all vaccine mandates, including the mandates required for children to attend public schools. He compared the vaccine mandates to slavery during a news conference announcing the decision.
On Sunday, Ladapo, who rose to prominence in 2020 for being skeptic of COVID-19 prevention and treatment, was grilled by CNN’s Jake Tapper on the decision, deflecting a question about preparing hospitals for possible disease outbreaks, and instead saying again it’s a parents’ rights issue to have “ultimate authority over what happens to their kids’ bodies.”
He said Florida has outbreaks like any other state, so there’s no new “special procedures” that need to be made.
According to a poll from Harvard, 79% of American adults support vaccine mandates for children attending public school. Even President Donald Trump, who has falsely linked vaccines in children to autism, distanced himself from Florida’s plan to end vaccine mandates, saying Friday that “some” vaccines, like the polio vaccine, are “so amazing.”
“I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don’t have to be vaccinated. It’s a very, you know, it’s a very tough position,” Trump said.
Ladapo dismissed Trump’s comment, telling Tapper it’s “nuanced.”
Childhood vaccines prevent about 4 million deaths per year, according to the Centers for Disease and Control. Without vaccine mandates in place for children attending public schools, infectious disease can rapidly spread because of a school’s close quarters, and children can become infected with diseases like polio, which can cause muscle pain, weakness and respiratory problems. Vaccine skepticism, echoed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., led to a measles outbreak in America this summer, putting the United States at risk of losing its measles elimination status.
When asked about immunocompromised children who can’t get vaccinated and who rely on other kids to get vaccinated to stop the spread of diseases, Ladapo said “obviously” he is “sympathetic” but again said it comes down to parents’ rights.
“It’s really about ethics,” Ladapo said on CNN. “Is it appropriate for a government or any other entity to dictate to you what you should put in your body? No, it’s absolutely not appropriate. You have sovereignty over your body.”
Florida’s health department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.