Florida vaccine mandates: Casey DeSantis, Lt. Gov. speak on MAHA in Orlando

ORLANDO, Fla. - Florida's First Lady Casey DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins spoke on the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative on Thursday afternoon in Orlando. The event came after Florida officials on Wednesday announced their plans to become the first state to end all vaccine mandates, including for schoolchildren.

What is MAHA? What are Florida's vaccine mandates?

What we know:

DeSantis, Collins and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Taylor Hatch spoke on Thursday at the J.W. Marriott in Orlando. 

DeSantis and Collins are the new chairs of the Florida MAHA Commission, which was announced on Wednesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis to promote medical freedom and parental choice, particularly concerning childhood vaccines.

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The commission was launched in conjunction with an announcement by Ron DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo to eliminate all vaccine mandates. The pair said forcing vaccine mandates is "wrong" and "immoral."

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The state would be the first to scrap requirements that children be vaccinated to attend school, among other rules.

What are Florida leaders saying about the changes?

What they're saying:

Republican leaders who support removing vaccine mandates often argue that doing so protects individual freedom, empowers parental choice and prevents economic harm.

"Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery," the state's surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, said at a press conference on Wednesday. "Who am I as a government or anyone else, or who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what to do with your body?"

"I don’t think there’s another state that’s done as much as Florida," Ron DeSantis said. "We want to stay ahead of the curve."

"We’re getting government out of the way, getting government out of your lives," Collins said.

"It's important to have a vision, and it's important to be strong in what you believe in," Casey DeSantis said. "You have to have the backbone and the courage to back up what you believe in. You have to have the courage to sometimes stand alone. You have to have the ability to fight for what you believe in."

The other side:

Democratic leaders are speaking out against moves by Republican officials to eliminate vaccine mandates, emphasizing the health risks of such decisions.

Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani, who is running for Orlando mayor, said in a social media post that scrapping vaccines "is reckless and dangerous" and could cause outbreaks of preventable disease.

"This is a public health disaster in the making for the Sunshine State," she said on the social platform X.

Other Democratic leaders, such as state Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman, called the move "dangerous, anti-science and anti-child," adding that "nobody wants to go back to the days of iron lungs." Meanwhile, state Senator Shevrin Jones stated that ending mandates poses a "grave public health risk" and "jeopardizes the health and lives of countless Floridians."