MAGA Florida Surgeon General Likens Vaccine Mandates To 'Slavery' In Unhinged Speech

In remarks announcing that Florida will work to eliminate all vaccine mandates, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, the state's Surgeon General, claimed that every mandate is "wrong" and went so far as to compare them to the actual enslavement of Black Americans.

Ladapo spoke as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced the creation of a state-level Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) commission, modeled on federal initiatives promoted by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Ladapo said the Health Department can roll back some vaccine mandates on its own, but others would require legislative action. He did not specify which vaccines could be targeted, but repeatedly said the goal was to end “all of them. Every last one of them.”

He said:

“Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery." ...

"Who am I as a government or anyone else, who am I as a man standing here now, to tell you what you should put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should put in [their] body? I don’t have that right.”

“You want to put whatever different vaccines in your body, God bless you. I hope you make an informed decision. You don’t want to put whatever vaccines in your body, God bless you. I hope you make an informed decision. That’s how it should be.”

Ladapo's remarks are absurd.

Slavery was in fact a brutal legal institution, comprising the enslavement of Black people who were kidnapped from their homes and families and forced to reside in a foreign land where they served as the economic backbone of the American South.

That has absolutely nothing to do with vaccines, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—which the Trump administration has railed against—even says:

"Vaccines can prevent common diseases that used to seriously harm or even kill infants, children, and adults. Without vaccines, your child is at risk of becoming seriously ill or even dying from childhood diseases such as measles and whooping cough."

People all over the world are alive today because of immunization efforts. Vaccines remain essential for preventing and controlling infectious disease outbreaks. They are a cornerstone of global health security and a key defense against antimicrobial resistance.

Many have condemned Ladapo's remarks.

Ladapo has previously pushed back against vaccines in Florida, at one point advising that people under 65 should not receive an mRNA COVID-19 shot, guidance that directly contradicted recommendations from the CDC.

Last year, during a measles outbreak in the state, he told parents to monitor their children for symptoms but left it up to them whether to keep them home from school. He did not urge parents to vaccinate their children.

Dr. Susan Kressly, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, spoke out against the Florida Health Department's move, saying that these decisions "will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, and have ripple effects across their community."