Democratic candidate for governor David Jolly is using vaccine mandates to highlight the difference between his campaign and the Republican establishment now firmly in control of state government.
At a news conference April 28 after the Florida House killed an effort to rollback vaccine mandates for public schools, Jolly used the Senate proposal to draw a sharp contrast between what he called evidence‑based public safety policies as opposed to government by ideology.
Flanked by two physicians in the Florida Capitol’s fourth-floor rotunda, Jolly accused Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican legislative leaders of turning public health into campaign politics by adding the proposal to a special session on redistricting.
Even though House Speaker Daniel Perez scrapped the proposal minutes after convening into session, Jolly said by even by including it in the call, Republican leaders had allowed ideology to step in front of science and math and data — particularly in public health.
“I pledge to bring back subject matter expertise to government. This is about returning adult leadership to the state,” Jolly said. He then promised to fire Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on his first day in office, assuming he doesn’t tender a resignation before DeSantis leaves office in January.
Ladapo has called for ending all vaccine mandates in state law and has begun repealing Florida Department of Health rules requiring immunizations for chickenpox, hepatitis B and pneumococcal disease — protections that guard against illnesses such as pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis.
Although Perez said the House will not consider the Senate’s “Medical Freedom” bill to allow for a conscientious exemption from mandatory school vaccines, Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, said she does not expect DeSantis and Ladapo to drop their push to end mandatory immunization to attend public schools.
“We are still in danger of what Gov. DeSantis might do through the rest of his administration,” Polsky said. “We’re still in danger of what this surgeon general could do in the remainder of his term.” A request for comment is pending with the governor’s office.
Polsky said vaccination rates have plummeted in some Florida counties to below 70%, a level that enables infectious diseases to spread. “There are places in this state now where herd immunity no longer exists,” she said.
When asked if he would maintain vaccination requirements for public schools, Jolly said he would follow the advice of medical experts and turned to Florida International University infectious disease specialist Dr. Aileen M. Marty.
“You want to have an environment where children aren’t going to fall ill with an acute disease that can become a chronic disease — or even, in some instances, a deadly disease,” Marty said. “And that is exactly what we’re seeing right now in Florida.”
In April, Florida reported 140 confirmed measles cases, the largest outbreak in modern history,, placing it among the top states for cases nationwide.
Most of the cases were between the ages of 15–24 and were clustered around university campuses and involved people who never completed childhood immunization, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and the Florida Department of Health.
Jolly, a former Republican congressman, broke with the GOP in 2016 and became a no-party affiliated voter. He later joined the Democratic Party to run for governor.
He has seized on DeSantis’ vaccine-exemption push supported by elements of President Donald Trump’s Make America Healthy Again wing as a test for Florida leadership. He asks, will they be guided by medical expertise — or political calculation at the expense of public safety?
And when asked about the bet he is making by including vaccine requirements as a campaign message, Jolly said Floridians will “cheer the return of science, data, and math to public health” policy.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: At Capitol, David Jolly challenges DeSantis on vaccine mandates
Reporting by James Call, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
