Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo said Sunday that state health officials did not need to analyze or project the public health effects of scaling back school vaccine mandates, defending the move as a matter of parental rights rather than epidemiology.
Ladapo, appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," was pressed on whether his department studied how removing requirements could affect outbreaks of preventable illnesses.
"Absolutely not," he told anchor Jake Tapper. "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."
He said the state already manages disease outbreaks and would continue to do so.
"We handle outbreaks all the time," he argued. "There's nothing special that we would need to do."
Ladapo added that other countries without mandates, such as Sweden and the United Kingdom, are not experiencing a public health collapse.
"The sky isn't falling over there," he said.
The Florida Department of Health confirmed Sunday that the plan, announced by Ladapo last week, would drop requirements for vaccinations against chickenpox, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and pneumococcal diseases such as meningitis. The rule change was filed Sept. 3 and is expected to take effect in about 90 days.
All other required vaccines, including for measles, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, mumps, and tetanus, will remain in place unless lawmakers extend the repeal.
By lifting the mandates, Florida would become the first state to make some childhood vaccines voluntary, a sharp break from decades of public health policy and research.
President Donald Trump has urged caution, saying vaccines are "so amazing" and that they protect children who cannot be immunized.
Ladapo said he respects Trump but rejected his argument. "Ultimately, it's much more important that parents have the right and the ability to decide what enters their children's bodies," he said.
The move has drawn criticism from Ladapo's predecessor, Scott Rivkees, who warned Florida children "will now be more at risk of vaccine-preventable illnesses than at any time in recent history." Major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, also oppose the rollback.
Pressed on whether his position could change in light of risks to immunocompromised children, Ladapo said parental authority is "immutable."
"They are the ultimate arbiters of what happens with their children," he said. "That's how it should be. And that's why my position will never change, because that will always be true."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.