Exemption for moral, ethical beliefs zapped from DeSantis administration’s proposed vax rule
Sep 30, 2026 | 11:43 am ET
Description
Measles begins with a blotchy red rash that typically appears on the face and then spreads to the body of the person infected. (Photo by Natalya Maisheva/Getty Images)
The DeSantis administration is backing off its push to make it easier for parents to opt out of vaccinating their children by eliminating from a proposed rule change “sincerely held moral or ethical belief(s)” from the reasons a parent could object to required vaccinations for children to enter school.
The administration announced the change Wednesday, along with plans for a four-hour rule hearing on Oct. 8 in Lake Mary to discuss additional changes the governor wants to make to the state’s vaccine policies before he is term-limited out of office in January.
The rule hearing was requested by the Florida chapters of the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Chris Nuland, a Jacksonville healthcare attorney and lobbyist for the Florida Chapter of the American College of Physicians, lauded the change but sees it as a tactical move by the administration.
“We applaud the removal of the phrase ‘sincerely held moral or ethical belief(s)’ as the governing statute did not authorize such an exemption,” Nuland told the Florida Phoenix. But he added, “Our fundamental objection to the proposed rule is the deletion of those four vaccinations — haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), hepatitis B, varicella (chickenpox), and pneumococcal conjugate.)”
Rule hearings allow affected people to weigh in about proposed regulations before the state adopts them. Following a rule hearing, an affected party can file a challenge to the proposal in the state Division of Administrative Hearings, according to the Pocket Guide to Florida’s Administrative Procedures Act.
The DOH, headed by state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, in August published proposed changes to DOH regulations implementing the state’s vaccine requirement laws.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been eager to eliminate all vaccine mandates from Florida law, opted for the administrative route to change policy after the Florida Legislature repeatedly rejected his efforts to change the law.
DeSantis wanted to make it easier for parents to refuse vaccines for their children but still send them to school by adding an exemption for parents who oppose vaccines based on sincerely held moral or ethical beliefs. The Legislature also rejected DeSantis’ push to require pediatricians and other physicians to treat unvaccinated patients, an effort opposed by organized medicine.
DOH: 162 measles cases as of Sept. 19
The move to alter the state’s vaccine requirements and eliminate from rules other vaccines comes as the number of measles cases in Florida climbed to 162 as of Aug. 19. That includes four new cases reported to the DOH in September, a review of DOH data shows, including three new cases in Collier County in September. Collier accounts for 113 of the measles cases.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the best way to protect against measles is to get the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Herd immunity for the measles occurs when 95% of a population is vaccinated. According to the CDC, Florida’s MMR vaccination rate for kindergarteners for school year 2025-26 was 88.9%. That’s down from a recent high of 94.1% in the 2017-18 school year, the CDC data show.
Florida law requires children at a minimum to be immunized for poliomyelitis, diphtheria, rubeola, rubella, pertussis, mumps, and tetanus to attend school but allows exemptions for valid medical and religious reasons.
The DOH holds authority under the statute to also require vaccinations for “other communicable diseases as determined.” Under that authority, the DOH has required children to also be immunized for haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), hepatitis B, varicella (chickenpox), and pneumococcal conjugate.
The proposed amendments would alter existing regulations to eliminate vaccine mandates that aren’t required by law and to codify in rule a 2019 statute that allows parents to opt out of having their children’s vaccine history included in the state’s health online tracking system, commonly referred to as SHOTS.
The proposed changes also remove the combination vaccine, MMR, from the attestation form Florida healthcare providers are asked to sign.
That proposed change would bring the state in line with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump this summer calling on drug manufacturers to unbundle the MMR and MMRV (which provides added protection from chickenpox) vaccines and to produce individual vaccines for each of those illnesses instead.
There are no single vaccines for any of those illnesses and manufacturers would have to produce them. Trump’s order also called for increasing the amount of time between vaccine shots.
Tallahassee, FL
