Blocked shots: Gov. DeSantis urges permanent ban on vaccine mandates

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 3/4/25-Gov. Ron DeSantis talks with the media after giving the State of the State speech on the opening day of the 2025 Legislative Session, Tuesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

Gov. Ron DeSantis is urging lawmakers to permanently ban mandates for mRNA COVID vaccines, as a law on the books is going to expire this Summer.

“You should not be forced to take an mRNA shot against your will,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Tampa with First Lady Casey DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.

In 2023, DeSantis signed legislation (SB 252) making it illegal for businesses or governments to fire or refuse to hire employees because of their vaccination status among other provisions. “It is the intent of the Legislature that Floridians be free from mandated facial coverings, mandates of any kind relating to vaccines,” the bill said.

But the legislation also included a sunset date of June 2025.

“We enacted protections for people in the state of Florida so that no one had to choose between a job they needed and a shot they didn’t want. And we saved thousands and thousands of jobs and livelihoods as a result of doing that,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis said he has no idea why the Legislature added an expiration date in the bill, but is calling on lawmakers to extend the ban and make it permanent.

“We cannot allow those protections to evaporate,” he said as the Legislature reconvened for the first week of the Regular Session.

DeSantis’ press conference attacking vaccines comes as well-respected medical professionals, including the Mayo Clinic, say COVID vaccines are safe and work.

About 5,500 Floridians were reported dying from COVID in 2024, according to media reports in November. In 2020, in the height of the pandemic, Florida reported 23,349 deaths from the virus, according to CBS News.

In past years, lawsuits sprung up by Disney World employees, firefighters and others who were terminated because they refused to get vaccinated during the pandemic.

“I’d be talking to like these firefighters, these guys have been on the front lines and during COVID, they were doing things to help people. Many of them got exposed. That’s just part of the job. They did it,” DeSantis said. “They didn’t want to take mRNA, and so they were going to lose their job. It was like a big contest.”