Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced this week that he and Governor Ron DeSantis have instructed the state’s Department of Health to remove vaccine mandates for children.

This pronouncement echoes the ongoing fight in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last week, the head of the CDC was ousted. Other officials resigned in protest, including Dr. Demetre Daskalakis — better known as the flamboyantly homosexual monkey pox czar — because Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team were altering the vaccine schedule for children and adults. Yesterday, there were fireworks in a congressional hearing with RFK.

Regarding vaccine mandates in Florida, Ladapo had this to say:

Every last [mandate] is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery. Who am I, as a government, or anyone else, 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. Your body is a gift from God. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God.

While this may appear at the surface level like a wildly irresponsible step, there are both pros and cons to placing medical decisions for children back in parents’ hands rather than forcing them to inject their kids with various drugs in order to participate in school and society.

First, the cons. Vaccines for the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), and polio have long been in circulation and are demonstrably effective in halting the contraction of these horrible and often deadly diseases. These vaccines also largely depend on herd immunity — getting as many people vaccinated as possible. Allowing something like the measles to flourish once again in the U.S. is a very dangerous prospect. It can be deadly in and of itself, but the aftereffects are even more dangerous. The measles causes your immune system to “reset” and forget how to fight off diseases to which your body already had immunity, making it doubly hazardous.

In West Texas, there have been 762 cases of the measles this past year, resulting in the deaths of two children who were unvaccinated against the disease.

On the pro side of the argument, eliminating the Hepatitis B vaccine for day-old babies is a plus. Hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease, and administering the vaccine to every baby as opposed to being selective and inoculating just those whose parents may have the STD is questionable.

Whereas Florida is becoming a model for freedom from vaccine mandates, blue states like California and Oregon are going in the opposite direction. According to The Washington Post, “Democratic governors have promised to continue promoting coronavirus vaccines and other shots that Kennedy and his allies are targeting or no longer recommending.”

The success of Florida’s movement hinges on ensuring that parents are informed about vaccines. Parents are highly likely to take the option that is best for their children’s health. Generally speaking, most parents will opt to have their children inoculated against diseases like MMR and polio. The Post reports that 81% of the nation is in favor of vaccination, and 18% oppose it. But giving parents the freedom to choose is the key element.

Meanwhile, doubling down on vaccine mandates just further paints the Democrats as authoritarian.