Dr. Nancy Staats, right, speaks against the elimination of vaccine mandates. She appeared Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, before the Duval Legislative Delegation. | Michelle Corum, Jacksonville Today
Published on November 13, 2025 at 4:06 pm
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A local doctor says the community is alarmed over a proposal by health officials in Florida to end many childhood vaccination mandates.
Dr. Nancy Staats spoke Wednesday to the Duval Legislative Delegation, the locally elected officials who serve in the state Legislature. She asked them to listen to the Florida Medical Association and 78 other medical groups that oppose the elimination of mandated vaccines.
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Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, backed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, announced a plan Sept. 3 to end required school-age vaccinations for diseases like hepatitis B, chicken pox, influenza and meningitis. Staats told the delegation that Ladapo’s proposal is “radical and unscientific.”
“I actually believe Dr. Ladapo should be removed from office, but absent that, I would ask you to please, please resist removing vaccines. This proposal must be stopped before it’s too late, before we are burying our babies,” Staats said.
Vaccine support
Staats warned that if vaccinations are not mandated, vaccination rates will plummet, insurers won’t cover them, and most families won’t be able to afford vaccines.
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Soon, communities will have disease outbreaks, and those with the weakest immune systems — children younger than 1 — will suffer the most, she said.
The delegation asked no questions after Staats’ remarks.
Ladapo has said the state Health Department can scrap its own rules for some vaccine mandates, but others would require action by the Florida Legislature. He did not specify any particular mandates but repeated several times that the effort would end all of them.
Speaking out against vaccine mandates, Ladapo said it was a matter of personal freedom.
According to KFF Health News, the Florida Legislature is expected during its 2026 session to debate the reversal of a 1977 law requiring that children at schools and day cares be vaccinated against seven other potentially fatal diseases, including whooping cough, measles, polio, rubella, mumps, diphtheria, and tetanus.
Dr. Sunil Joshi, chief health officer for the city of Jacksonville, and Dr. Ali Kasraeian, president of the Duval County Medical Society, have previously issued written rebukes of removing vaccine mandates.
