Florida's plan to drop school vaccine rule won't start for 90 days

Florida's plan to drop school vaccine mandates likely won't take effect for 90 days and would include only chickenpox and a few other illnesses unless lawmakers decide to extend it to other diseases, like polio and measles, the health department said Sunday. The department responded to a request for details, four days after Florida's surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, said the state would become the first to make vaccinations voluntary and let families decide whether to inoculate their children. It's a retreat from decades of public policy and research that has shown vaccines to be safe and the most effective way to stop the spread of communicable diseases, especially among children. Despite that evidence, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expressed deep skepticism about vaccines. Florida's plan would lift mandates on school vaccines for hepatitis B, chickenpox, Hib influenza and pneumococcal diseases, such as meningitis, the health department said. "The Department initiated the rule change on September 3, 2025, and anticipates the rule change will not be effective for approximately 90 days," the state told The Associated Press in an email. The public school year in Florida started in August. All other vaccinations required under Florida law to attend school "remain in place, unless updated through legislation," including vaccines for measles, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, mumps and tetanus, the department said. Lawmakers don't meet again until January 2026, although committee meetings begin in October. Ladapo, appearing Sunday on CNN, repeated his message of free choice for childhood vaccines. "If you want them, God bless, you can have as many as you want," he said. "And if you don't want them, parents should have the ability and the power to decide what goes into their children's bodies. It's that simple." Florida currently has a religious exemption for vaccine requirements. Vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives globally over the past 50 years, the World Health Organization reported in 2024. The majority of those were infants and children. Dr. Rana Alissa, chair of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said making vaccines voluntary puts students and school staff at risk. This is the worst year for measles in the U.S. in more than three decades, with more than 1,400 cases confirmed nationwide, most of them in Texas, and three deaths. Whooping cough has killed at least two babies in Louisiana and a 5-year-old in Washington state since winter, as it too spreads rapidly. There have been more than 19,000 cases as of Aug. 23, nearly 2,000 more than this time last year, according to preliminary CDC data.