Former FL Surgeon General: Vaccination Mandate Ban Is ‘Not Based On Science'

By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix

September 29, 2025

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo has dismissed concerns that not enough research was done before he and Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last month that they intend to dismantle school vaccine mandates, saying this is an issue of “parents’ rights.”

But his predecessor — Dr. Scott Rivkees — says the matter has “nothing” to do with parental rights.

“This is part of an organized strategy to undermine vaccinations in Florida,” said Rivkees, who was Florida’s surgeon general from 2019-2021.

“This is a string of different policies and different statements that [Dr. Ladapo] has made to undermine vaccination. As far as this notion about personal freedom, I get that. But on the other hand, we can talk about personal freedom for one group of individuals who actually will impinge on the personal freedom of other individuals,” he continued.

“If we don’t have enough population protection, which means vaccinating children, individuals who may be immunocompromised, people who have been treated for cancer, people who are older, they’re actually going to have their rights and liberties trampled on by not being able to go out in public when outbreaks occur.”

Speaking on WMNF 88.5 FM radio to a Phoenix reporter on Friday, Rivkees, now a professor of medicine at Brown University, said the proposal offered by Ladapo and DeSantis to make Florida the first state in the nation to completely eliminate vaccine requirements “is a predetermined ideology that is not based on science.”

“Vaccines have prevented hundreds of millions of deaths. For vaccinations to work, you need two things to happen: Parents need to vaccinate their children. But also, because some individuals vaccines are not 100% effective — you know, people are immunocompromised — people [who] have cancer are also dependent upon other people being vaccinated for their children so that we have population safety.”

Speaking on a podcast called “On Call” with Houston physician Dr. Mary Talley Bowden earlier this month, Dr. Ladapo said he didn’t want mRNA Covid-19 vaccines available in the state. “The goal with the mRNA is for that not to be available to anyone, because no one should be using that one,” he said.

If Ladapo wants to rid the state of mRNA vaccines, he should provide other options, Rivkees said.

“Last year, Dr. Ladapo said no one should have mRNA vaccines but did not propose any alternatives for people. What are they going to do instead?” he asked, adding that the opposition to mRNA vaccines makes no sense.

“This is something that has been looked at extensively,” he said. “There’ve been just under a billion doses of the mRNA vaccines that have been given in the U.S. They’ve been incredibly effective. … The notion that they get into the human genome [and] affect our genes is absolutely not true. So, these are vaccines that are safe. They’re effective. During the pandemic they are estimated to have saved anywhere between two and three million lives.”

Ladapo already has the power to remove some vaccine requirements by simple rule changes. That means that starting in early December (taking effect 90 days after the Sept. 3 announcement) school vaccinations will no longer be required for hepatitis B, chickenpox, haemophilus type b (Hib), and pneumococcal conjugate virus. That’s according to a statement sent by the Florida Department of Health that was reported by ABC News.

Others, however, including poliomyelitis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, and rubella are still in place and won’t be removed unless the Legislature opts to do so when it convenes for its 2026 session in January.

Rivkees was a practicing pediatric endocrinologist and working as a professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine when the governor picked him to lead the Florida Department of Health and serve as surgeon general in April 2021. He had also served as associate chair of pediatrics for research at the Yale University School of Medicine and was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School.

In his first year as surgeon general, Rivkees declared a public health emergency and encouraged vaccinations in Florida after more than 2,000 cases of Hepatitis A were registered in the state. He then led the efforts to vaccinate more than 200,000 people against the virus.

When COVID-19 emerged early in 2020, Rivkees led the effort once the mRNA vaccine was available to administer. Florida had one of highest vaccination rates against the novel coronavirus and lowest death rates per capita in the country because the governor “embraced Covid vaccines,” he said.

“There was a major pivot by Gov. DeSantis about halfway through the pandemic,” he now says.

“We went to a situation where all of a sudden he stopped supporting vaccines. Vaccination rates fell and then, when the Delta wave hit in the summer of 2021, Florida went from having among the best vaccination rates and lowest mortality rates to among the worst. We see the painful consequences of changes in these policies.

“Being a pediatrician, having seen severe cases of childhood meningitis, chicken pox, hepatitis B, it breaks my heart that again we can be relieving these horrible diseases that cause so much harm to children and are vaccine-preventable. “

A survey of 631 registered Florida voters conducted by Bendixen & Amandi International, taken Sept. 7-9 found that 60% opposed ending vaccine mandates and just 37% supported it.

The Florida Phoenix, a nonprofit news site that’s free of advertising and free to readers, covers state government and politics through a mix of in-depth stories, briefs, and social media updates on the latest events, editorial cartoons, and progressive commentary. The Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.