(Editor’s Note: In the past two days, we have received many letters from readers who are horrified and angry over state officials’ decision to make Florida the first state to end all childhood vaccine mandates. Today we devote additional space to their opinions.)
Once again, the “free state of Florida” leads our great nation in idiocy.
Not content to ban fluoride from our water and waste time, money and energy by painting over rainbow crosswalks, our governor and surgeon general now stand side-by-side declaring with great pride that Florida would be the first state to end all childhood vaccination requirements.
Florida is rejecting a practice that public health experts have credited for decades with limiting the spread of infectious diseases.
Why would anyone with school-age children who has a modicum of intelligence consider moving here?
Norman Berkowitz, Boynton Beach
Good news for the NRA
Florida is moving to remove vaccine mandates for children attending public schools.
Gun violence is currently the No. 1 killer of children in America. But it won’t be long before deaths from childhood diseases overtakes this morbid statistic.
Jay Rechtman, Boynton Beach
Insane and appalling
The insanity from Tallahassee continues.
First they want to reduce the subsidy to Tri-Rail, put it out of operation and add tens of thousands more cars to an already congested I-95. Next, the governor and surgeon general want to let kids and adults suffer from preventable childhood diseases.
The hypocrisy from the surgeon general is appalling. Joseph Ladapo has previously sown doubts about mRNA COVID vaccines. He did not recommend the measles vaccine to families or require unvaccinated students to stay home amid a 2024 measles outbreak at a Weston school.
Getting immunized is a personal choice, Ladapo said: “Not this nonsense where people who don’t know you are telling you what to put in your temple, the temple of your body. It’s a gift from God.”
They’re all for individuals having ownership of their bodies, unless you’re a pregnant woman who wishes to end her pregnancy after six weeks or you’re an adult who wants to use recreational cannabis. Then the state knows what’s best for you and the answer is NO to both!
You Will Obey Us! (And no rainbow crosswalks, either).
Michael Wiack, Fort Lauderdale
Ladapo must go
This is short and not so sweet: Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has to go.
California was glad to get rid of him when our esteemed governor choose to bring him to Florida. Now we suffer from his ignorance and that of our governor. It’s time for Floridians to wake up.
Richard Silver, Boynton Beach
A danger to Floridians
Now that someone with the famed Kennedy name — even though a former heroin addict — has lent anti-vaccine activists a veneer of respectability, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo feels emboldened.
Chosen for his anti-vaccine views, Ladapo is endangering the state by pushing to end vaccine mandates, abusing his title to give cover to this bizarre recommendation.
As vaccination rates fall, herd immunity against highly contagious diseases like measles and polio will teeter on the brink. Outbreaks could spread rapidly, threatening not only the unvaccinated but those whose immunity has waned with age or are medically vulnerable. Moreover, travel could carry diseases once nearly eradicated far beyond Florida, putting the entire nation at risk.
Dr. Gene Klein, Deerfield Beach
Rampant diseases with no vaccines, interventions or cures.
Myriad homeless people are hopelessly begging, starving on scalding streets overwhelmed by sewage, vermin and despair, while the royalty and wealthy hoard the essentials, the means and the power.
The Middle Ages in Europe, or America’s modern existence?
Pat I. Richards, Fort Lauderdale
How about his kids?
I would like to know if Gov. Ron DeSantis is sending his own children to school unvaccinated. Then we’ll know if this is just a ploy to appeal to Trump, RFK Jr., and their merry band of nuts.
Karyn Rhodes Dornfield, Boca Raton
Readers rightly ask: As top Florida officials wage war against childhood vaccines, will it mean an end to free flu vaccines, too? Where will this end, if ever?
A question of choices
From the Sept. 4 Sun Sentinel, Gov. DeSantis (I use the term “governor” lightly) said “you should never be discriminated against regardless of your choices,” referring to doctors who won’t include unvaccinated children in their practices.
I remember when a bakery refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple a few years ago went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which said it was OK to discriminate.
When is it OK to discriminate? For the Christian Nationalist arm of the Republican Party, of which DeSantis is either a member of or at least a panderer to, it seems OK if they are discriminating.
There is no sanity left in this country.
Mark Morowitz, Delray Beach
Inviting illness and death
The most influential public health official on the planet appears to be a lying, conspiracy theory-spreading quack. Our state surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, is following his lead by banning vaccine mandates in Florida, placing children and communities at risk for serious childhood diseases and causing unnecessary illness and death.
Vaccines protect millions. It’s outrageous that in 2025, there needed to be a Senate hearing to question Health & Human Services Secretary Kennedy’s irresponsible public health decisions. Check out any cemetery in the country and see the many graves of children buried before the 1950s, when America began acquiring the vaccines that eliminated many childhood diseases.
The mRNA vaccines rolled out in response to the COVID-19 pandemic saved millions of lives. Every medical organization in the country reports that vaccines are safe and effective.
I question whether Kennedy understands basic principles of public health. How confusing will it be for parents and doctors? Will vaccines still be accessible? Will they still be covered by insurance?
Disregarding science is outrageous and dangerous. Putting politics over science is never a good thing. I am astounded by both Kennedy’s and Ladapo’s distain for science.
Rosemary Blumberg, Plantation
Vaccine hypocrisy
Floridians, take note: While waiting to watch your children die of treatable diseases, please contact your state legislators. Ask them to insist on full disclosure of the medical records of Joseph Ladapo and Ron DeSantis — to see if they and their families are fully vaccinated.
Laurence Miller, Ph.D., Boca Raton
Please submit a letter to the editor by email to letterstotheeditor@sunsentinel.com or fill out the online form below. Letters may be up to 200 words and must be signed with your email address, city of residence and daytime phone number for verification. Letters will be edited for clarity and length.
