People across Florida can weigh in on the state's plan to remove requirements for four vaccines at schools and daycares at a hearing on Oct. 8 in Orlando, the Florida Department of Health announced Wednesday.
The state wants to make four shots completely optional: those to prevent chickenpox (varicella), hepatitis B, pneumococcal conjugate and haemophilus influenzae type b (hib), which is a type of bacterial infection that can be deadly.
Other vaccines required for schools and daycares, such as measles and polio, remain in effect and can only be changed by legislation. The state Department of Health oversees rules that require the four in question.
The effort is part of Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s initiative, which he announced last year, to increase “medical freedom” and parental choice, and end vaccine mandates, which he likened to “slavery.”
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There is no scientific or medical reason to remove these shots, and doing so will put people at risk of more illness and disease, warned the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FCAAP), which opposes the change.
Vaccination rates among Florida children have declined nearly 5% since the 2019-20 school year.
As the nation sees the highest number of measles cases in decades, just 88.8% of Florida kindergarteners received the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine for the 2024-2025 school year, which the FCAAP said in a letter to the DOH “is well below both the national average immunization rate of 93% and the 95% needed to prevent outbreaks of diseases like measles.”
The letter also pointed out the “Department of Health itself cautioned on declining immunization rates and an increase in exemptions as recently as April of 2025 in its Vaccine-Preventable Disease Surveillance Report,” and the state of Florida should be encouraging more children to get protected.
“Even when exercised infrequently, nonmedical exemptions are neither harmless nor benign. They lead to lower immunization rates and weaken our ability as a state to protect ourselves against dangerous diseases,” said the pediatricians’ letter.
Hearing details:
Date/time: Oct. 8, 2026, 9:00 a.m. - noon (ET) or until the conclusion of the hearing, whichever occurs first.
Location: Orlando Marriott Lake Mary, Grand Ballroom E, F, G, H, 1501 International Parkway, Lake Mary, Florida 32746-4708
Subject: The Department of Health’s proposed revisions to Rule 64D-3.046, Florida Administrative Code, related to immunization requirements for school entry.
More info: A copy of the agenda may be obtained by contacting Tom Bendle at Thomas.Bendle@flhealth.gov, (850)245-4342
