Florida pediatrician warns vaccine mandate removal could harm vulnerable residents
A top Florida pediatrician warned Thursday that the state's plan to eliminate all vaccine mandates could lead to outbreaks of preventable diseases and put vulnerable populations at risk.
Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Florida chapter, told ABC News in an interview that removing vaccine requirements for public school children could endanger not just students, but also "newborn infants, elderly populations, and people with compromised immune systems, including those undergoing chemotherapy."
The warning came a day after Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the state would become the first in the nation to remove all vaccine mandates, including those for common childhood diseases like polio, measles, chickenpox, and tetanus. All 50 states and Washington, D.C., had required certain vaccinations for school attendance.
Ladapo said an argument health care professionals have made in favor of vaccination is for people to get vaccinated to help protect those who are unable to receive a shot.
The surgeon general said that is not a "sincere" argument and said "there's no ethical basis for that to be used as a reason, really a force to take away your ability to choose what you put in your body and what you as a parent put in your child's body."
Gywnn told ABC News "it's not just about parental choice." She added, "When children are in close contact in classrooms, that's a perfect storm for these types of diseases to spread."
She argued that existing exemption policies already provide options for parents who oppose vaccination.
"There are other ways parents can achieve choice for their children," she said. "As pediatricians, we work together with parents so they can make informed decisions."
She also raised concerns about health equity, noting that removing mandates could create a "case of the haves and have-nots." Children from under-resourced communities who lack access to regular medical care might enter school unvaccinated not by choice, but due to healthcare barriers, she explained.
School entry vaccination mandates are determined by each state. All states allow medical vaccine exemptions, and most states already have exemption policies in place for people with strong religious objections, in an effort to balance the need for public health with the ideal of individual freedom of choice. Some states allow exemption based on personal belief alone.
Florida's decision to end vaccine mandates comes amid broader changes in national health policy. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday to discuss the administration's healthcare agenda, following recent shake-ups at both the FDA and CDC.
"These changes were absolutely necessary adjustments to restore the agency to its role as the world's gold standard public health agency with the central mission of protecting Americans from infectious disease," Kennedy said about the agency changes.
Ladapo defended the decision to end mandates on Wednesday, calling them "an immoral intrusion on people's rights" during his announcement at Grace Christian School in Valrico, Florida.
Gwynn countered this view, pointing to decades of research supporting vaccination programs.
"Public health measures have saved millions of lives," she told ABC News. "School vaccination requirements have been the best public health achievement of this century."
Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC, called Ladapo's announcement "frightening."
“As a pediatrician, and as a parent, it’s absolutely frightening, the idea that children could go to school and be unvaccinated," Besser told ABC News on Wednesday. "That puts them at risk and others around them who may have underlying medical conditions. That’s not what America’s about. In America, there are things we do to be part of a community."
A spokesperson for the Florida Surgeon General's Office did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.
According to a report published by the CDC in 2024, it’s estimated routine vaccines will have prevented over 500 million lifetime cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations and over a million deaths among kids born from 1994 to 2023. Additionally, vaccines will save $540 billion in direct costs and $2.7 trillion in societal costs.
