TALLAHASSEE (LifeSiteNews) — The surgeon general of Florida declared to thunderous applause and cheers that all vaccine mandates — including those for school-aged children — in the Sunshine State will be ended.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo joined Governor Ron DeSantis as he unveiled plans to establish the Florida Make America Healthy Again Commission.
“The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law,” said Ladapo. “All of them!”
“Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery!” said Ladapo.
“Who am I, or the government, or anyone else, to tell you what you should put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” he asked.”
“I don’t have that right!” he exclaimed. “Your body is a gift from God. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God.”
“I don’t have the right!” he proclaimed. “Government does not have that right!”
“The Florida MAHA Commission … will recommend state-level integration of Make America Healthy principles,” including, “individual medical freedom, informed consent, parent rights, and market innovation,” explained Gov. DeSantis.
The newly formed MAHA working group will focus on “promoting clean, safe, and nutritious food, improving transparency and accountability in healthcare, [addressing] the causes of chronic diseases, and restoring trust in the medical profession and public health,” said the governor.
DeSantis said the “Florida MAHA commission will prioritize reforms that empower Floridians, reduce regulatory burdens and hold actors accountable for their conduct, while fostering incentives for healthy living and innovation.”
Currently, parents must request religious or medical exemptions for their children from Florida county health departments.
Last week, a bill prohibiting federal education funding to educational institutions and agencies across the country that refuse to provide students with religious exemptions was introduced in U.S. Congress by another Floridian, Rep. Greg Steube.
Steube’s proposed measure comes as four states with vaccine mandates deemed to be “unconstitutional” by critics – California, New York, Maine, and Connecticut – continue to deny children of religious families access to education and health care.
The past four years have seen a renewed critical look by many at conventional vaccines and the laws governing them, provoked by the federal government’s lack of transparency regarding the dangers and ineffectiveness of the COVID-19 shots that were developed and reviewed in a fraction of the time vaccines usually take under the first Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative.
“Attempts to mandate the shots also reignited awareness of the use of cells derived from aborted babies in vaccine development and testing, raising moral objections,” noted LifeSiteNews’ Calvin Freiburger in August.
In many states and under the Biden administration, neither health nor moral concerns were enough to stop authorities from attempting to mandate the shots, further intensifying skepticism toward vaccines.
While Florida seeks to become the first state to eliminate all vaccine requirements for its citizens, other states have sought to strengthen their mandates.
A bill introduced in the Massachusetts legislature would mean the end of religious exemptions from mandated school vaccines, effectively banning children from public or private schools if their parents refuse vaccines on religious grounds.
