WASHINGTON 

The US state of Florida will work to phase out all vaccine mandates, including those for school-age children, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said Wednesday.

"The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law," Ladapo said to applause at a news conference.

"Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery, okay? Who am I as a government or anyone else, or who am I as a man standing here now, to tell you what you should put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should put in your body? I don't have that right. Your body is a gift from God," he added to further cheers.

The Florida Department of Health's website indicates the state requires a schedule of vaccinations for children to attend school and daycare up through the end of high school.

But Ladapo called the mandates "wrong" and "immoral, and said that while the governor can end some of the state's vaccine requirements, lawmakers will have to "choose a side" to end all of them.

"I love our lawmakers. Obviously, they make the machinery of our laws, our governor reviews, we work in collaboration, he signs," he said. "I love our lawmakers. They're going to have to make decisions. That's the way that this becomes possible. People are going to have to make a decision. People are going to have to choose a side."

Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani called the decision "reckless and dangerous," and said it will increase the likelihood of a preventable health crisis in Florida.

"It will drive down immunization rates & open the door to outbreaks of preventable diseases, putting children, seniors, and vulnerable Floridians at risk," she wrote on American social media platform X. "This is a public health disaster in the making for the Sunshine State."