A bill loosening child vaccination mandates was stricken from this week's legislative special session. Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez announced Tuesday morning that he did not see a reason for the House to take on the Medical Freedom Act.
"There is some concern here, on my behalf, about children being in school without measles, mumps, polio, and chickenpox vaccines that have been working for decades," he said.
Medical Freedom (SB 1756) passed through the Senate during the scheduled legislative session earlier this year, but its companion bill died in the House.
This month, the Senate announced that the Medical Freedom Act would be one of the priority bills legislators would be working on this week. After the House move, the Senate on Tuesday opted not to advance the proposal.
If passed, the law would have allowed several new health policies. One is a parent's ability to waive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine for their children attending K-12 schools due to conscientious or philosophical reasons. Previously, Florida parents could only be exempted for religious reasons.
The law would have also required health care workers to provide risk and benefit information about specific vaccines to parents before administering them to a child.
Frustrated support
"It's just been very disappointing to see the House speaker essentially put his personal vendettas with the governor over the will of the people," said Justin Harvey, an Orange County resident and advocate ending vaccine mandates.
Perez has repeatedly clashed with Gov. Ron DeSantis. Previously, Perez blocked other legislation that DeSantis wished to pass in an effort to limit the House from becoming an extension of executive power. Last year, DeSantis called for a special session to pass legislation on illegal immigration. Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton rejected DeSantis' legislation and passed their own.
These types of repeated clashes give some residents pause over Perez's true intentions for blocking bills like the vaccine exemption measure.
"It's frustrating to see one person sort of stall such a wide effort," Harvey said. "The House speaker will not advance the bill. Why exactly that is? We don't know, but it seems like it's everything that we want, and we just want people to be able to make their decisions, their medical decisions."
Harvey, and many like him, aren't necessarily anti-vaccine. Rather, like the bill's namesake, he wants to see less government around medical decisions.
"Everyone should be responsible for their own health," he said. "At the end of the day, everyone should have the ability to take no vaccines or take as many vaccines as they like."
While supporters are disappointed with Tuesday's outcome, Harvey remains optimistic. He believes Florida will end vaccine mandates one day.
"The genie is not going back in the bottle," he said. "The people who don't trust the medical establishment are doing fewer vaccinations. They want an overall less pharmaceutical-based world. They're not going back."
Criticism of the bill
While there are those who wanted to see the bill pass, there are many who criticize the proposed change in vaccine policy, with groups citing two arguments.
First, the majority of Florida parents oppose ending vaccine mandates. In October, the University of North Florida released a survey that found nearly two-thirds of Floridians strongly or somewhat oppose the proposed policy change, with about half (48%) strongly opposed.
The survey also found that about a third of the sample supports removing vaccine mandates, with 20% feeling strongly about it.
The second argument comes down to waning vaccine interest and a resurgence in measles cases.
So far this year, Florida has reported 145 measles cases. The state's online public database shows measles cases starting from 1992. This year recorded more than triple Florida's previous highest year (1992) for measles, and accounts for a third of all Florida's cases. A majority were in Collier County, where there was an outbreak at Ave Maria University.
As for vaccine interest, Florida's immunization rate has fallen since 2019.
The 2025-26 class data shows that state kindergartners had a vaccine rate of 88% for the second year in a row. Experts say that's not enough for community protection against one of the most contagious diseases in the world.
To gain herd immunity against measles, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 95% of a population be vaccinated.
What will the House focus on?
On Tuesday, Perez also announced that the House would not be picking up a bill that would address child safety with artificial intelligence, another wishlist item for DeSantis. Perez said the concern for the federal government to handle.
"I understand the governor's concern about wanting to protect children. We want to protect children, too. He is not wrong for wanting that. I agree with him on that sentiment, but we have seen very clearly that the president of the United States issued an executive order stating that the federal government should handle the AI policies of this country," Perez said.
The Senate still passed the AI bill, 37-1, on Tuesday.
Perez said the House's focus would be on congressional redistricting.
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