Florida’s surgeon general announced Wednesday that the state plans to eliminate all vaccine mandates

Speaking at a press conference, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo described vaccine mandates as “drip[ping] with disdain and slavery,” and said:

The Florida Department of Health [has] some rules that [my predecessors] promulgated that include a handful—maybe a half a dozen vaccines that are mandated in Florida. So those are going to be gone… We’re going to be working with our amazing Governor DeSantis and our wonderful lawmakers to get rid of the rest of them. We need to end it. It’s the right thing to do.

Children entering daycare or preschool in Florida are currently required to show proof of immunization from polio, diphtheria, measles, rubella, pertussis or whooping cough, mumps, and tetanus.

A number of potential legal hurdles remain before the state’s vaccine mandates can be lifted. While the surgeon general indicated the Florida Department of Health could eliminate vaccine mandates through administrative action, state immunization guidelines show the core requirements are codified in multiple Florida Statutes, including Section 1003.22 for K-12 schools and Section 402.305 for childcare facilities, according to policy guidelines currently on the Department of Health website.

The initiative could also put the state at odds with federal vaccine requirements, though US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is also famously distrustful of vaccines—a fact that has prompted high level health officials to resign their posts, with one blaming Kennedy’s leadership for an “intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines.”

Vaccine mandates for schools and childcare facilities aim to maintain high immunization rates that protect communities from outbreaks of infectious diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention credits childhood vaccination programs with preventing millions of deaths and cases of disease, including the near-elimination of polio in the United States and dramatic reductions in measles, mumps, rubella, and other once-common childhood illnesses. Public health officials say mandates help achieve “herd immunity,” the level of population immunity needed to prevent disease transmission and protect individuals who cannot be vaccinated due to medical conditions or age.