The only problem with vaccines is that they work too well. We’re now approaching a century of mass-vaccination programs, with smallpox, polio, measles, rubella, and diphtheria all but eradicated.
These diseases meant parents were once rolling the dice on whether any child would make it to age 10. Even if they did survive, they could be left with lifelong health conditions. But, with the last generations with first-hand experiences of life before vaccination dying of old age, an increasing number of people just take their children’s lives for granted.
All of which is why the growing antivaxx movement is so terrifying. They’re ignorant of the colossal achievements of medical science, gullible enough to believe random YouTubers, and now, most scarily of all, they’re now in positions of power over you.
All of which is why Floridians should be terrified for their children right now, as the state has announced it’s ending all vaccination mandates. This means parents don’t have to vaccinate their children, which will drastically lower herd immunity, and will result in the kids’ section of the cemetery getting a bit crowded.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo was grilled about this plan on CNN’s State of the Union by Jake Tapper, who asked him if his office had done any projections on how much disease is going to increase in his state. His answer: “Absolutely not!”
Terrifying that this idiot is somehow Surgeon General
TAPPER: Hepatitis A, whooping cough, and chickenpox cases are rising in Florida. Before you made this decision to try to lift vaccine mandates for Florida, did your department do any data analysis of how many new cases of these diseases there will be with no vaccine mandates?… pic.twitter.com/4N2imThzAZ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 7, 2025
Ladapo went on to say he was focused on parents’ rights rather than science, saying it’s an issue of “right or wrong” and he doesn’t “need to do an analysis of that”. A clearly shocked Tapper replied:
“So, you’re lifting the vaccine mandate in Florida, and your department and you did not even do a projection as to how this could impact public health. So, you have not prepared hospitals in the Florida counties most at risk with the best treatments for any outbreaks .. and you have not looked into how many kids might now get these preventable diseases? That’s what you’re saying?”
Ladapo replied, “No, that’s what you said. It’s an issue of right or wrong. In terms of whether parents should control – have ultimate authority – over what happens to their kids’ bodies.”
Yeah, they will! Soon, Florida parents will have the “ultimate authority” to decide whether their kid’s body is buried or cremated!
Ladapo sounded out of his depth throughout the interview and seemed blithely unaware (or unwilling to admit) that the decisions he’s making are objectively going to kill many children.
So when (and it is a “when”) there are Florida measles outbreaks that kill kids (as is already happening elsewhere in the United States with low vaccination levels), let’s invite Ladapo down to the morgue to spend some time looking at their corpses. Give him some time to reflect on whether giving ill-informed and poorly educated parents “ultimate authority” over their children’s medical treatment was actually such a wonderful idea after all.
