By Hayden Randolph
TAMPA, Fla. — In a speech on Sept. 3, 2025, Florida’s Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, announced that Florida plans to end all childhood vaccine mandates. The decision comes as several measles outbreaks occur in multiple states around the country.
The announcement aligns with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary in the Trump administration’s anti-vaccine approach to running the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Shanda Vereen of the University of Tampa explains the function of vaccinations.
“They are there to prevent adverse health outcomes,” she said. “The vaccine for the measles is there to prevent people from getting the measles.”
Understanding the purpose of vaccines, Vereen explains what happens when the portion of the population who are vaccinated declines.
“Whenever we have vaccine rates that are below what we call the level for herd immunity, then we start to see higher levels of outbreaks.”
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health writes that 2025 has reported more cases — a disease labeled eradicated in 2000 — than any other year this century.
Dr. Olivia Bullock of the University of Florida explains why measles is spreading in some areas around the country.
“The reason that measles is starting to spread is because we previously had vaccination thresholds of higher than 95%,” she said. “In some geographic areas, there still is a high vaccination threshold, but what happens is when you have vaccination rates that are slipping below that, then you start to see disease reemerge.”
A report titled “Public Health and Economic Consequences of Vaccine Hesitancy for Measles in the United States” found that vaccine hesitancy not only has dire public health consequences, but economic ones as well. The study found that just a 5% reduction in the portion of children who get the measles vaccination results in a threefold increase in measles cases, as well as a $2.1 million increase in the costs for the public sector.
Rob Kriete, president of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, explains that the reactions of teachers to this announcement regarding vaccine mandates are one of dismay.
“The reactions I have received from teachers and more professionals in the field is one of outrage, concern, and anxiety,” he said. “It feels like it goes against science.”
While Kriete recognizes that this decision is concerning to public school teachers, he conveys their resilience.
“The Florida public school teachers are resilient. They work in a state where they are paid 50th in the nation,” he added. “Public education has been treated more as a doormat than as an asset to our communities.”
According to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, vaccinations are safe, effective, and could save lives as well as protect families from the spread of disease. Vereen agrees that a vaccine mandate does not just keep a single vaccinated child safe, but keeps everyone around that child safe, too.
“Whenever we are mandating vaccines, it makes it less likely for these children to be exposed to those health outcomes while they are in school,” she said. “That means that all those people who are around those vaccinated kids (parents, teachers, principals) are less likely to be exposed when that mandate is there.”
There are many people involved in the process of creating a safe and health-driven learning environment. Bullock recommends that everyone be involved in this process.
“The end goal for all of this is this goal that parents and doctors and healthcare experts and government organizations all share, which is stopping the spread of communicable diseases.”
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Photo courtesy of Hayden Randolph.