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President Donald Trump said on Friday that Florida officials are taking a “tough stance” by moving to eliminate all vaccine mandates for students, as he stated that some “vaccines should be used.”
“I think we have to be very careful. You have some vaccines that are so amazing. The polio vaccine, I happen to think, is amazing,” Trump told reporters, adding that he believes the COVID-19 vaccine developed during his first term is also “amazing.”
He continued: “You have some vaccines that are so incredible, and I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don’t have to be vaccinated. It’s a very tough position … it’s a tough stance.”
The president added that there are “vaccines that work, they just pure and simple work.”
“They’re not controversial at all,” Trump said. “And I think those vaccines should be used, otherwise some people are going to catch it and they endanger other people. And when you don’t have controversy at all, I think people should take them.”
On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the move to eliminate all vaccine mandates. Ladapo even went as far as to compare vaccine requirements to slavery.
“All of them,” Ladapo said during a news conference. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”
He also said vaccine mandates are “wrong” and “immoral.”
Ladapo said the Florida Department of Health would repeal mandates under his authority, while the state legislature would need to address the others.
Florida has required students going to school to receive vaccinations for polio, diphtheria, measles, rubella, pertussis, mumps, tetanus and other communicable diseases, although parents could still request exemptions on religious grounds.
Every U.S. state and Washington, D.C., currently requires vaccines for children to attend school. Across the country, there has been a decline in vaccinations among children.
The COVID-19 vaccine, which Ladapo referred to as “poison,” was removed from the recommended list for healthy children by the federal government under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Who am I as a government or anyone else, who am I as a man standing here now, to tell you what you should put in your body?” Lapado said. “Who am I to tell you what your child should put in [their] body? I don’t have that right.”
“You want to put whatever different vaccines in your body, God bless you. I hope you make an informed decision,” he added. “You don’t want to put whatever vaccines in your body, God bless you. I hope you make an informed decision. That’s how it should be.”
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