STAT December 23, 2025
Before policymakers change vaccine requirements, they need to ask these questions
At a press conference earlier this year, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo compared vaccine mandates to slavery: “If we want to move toward a perfect world, a better world, we can’t do it by enslaving people in terrible philosophies and taking away people’s freedoms. That’s not the path … we have to find alternative pathways.”
Ladapo is a particularly extreme adherent of what is known as the “medical freedom” movement. Its members, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), downplay the value of vaccines and emphasize that the decision to vaccinate is one of personal choice.
But when it comes to...
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