House speaker kills vaccine exemption bill amid Florida measles surge

Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez killed the chamber’s vaccine exemption bill as the special session opened in Tallahassee, declaring the House was “fairly clear on our position” against expanding exemptions for public K-12 students.

Perez said the bill was dead in the House before lawmakers even began work on April 28, underscoring a sharp break with Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had called them back to address vaccine exemptions, artificial intelligence regulations and a new congressional map. DeSantis accused the House of “typical political shenanigans” and said voters elected Republicans to defend freedom against “the Big Tech cartel and the medical industrial complex.”

At issue is SB 6D, the “Medical Freedom Act” filed by Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville. The measure was identical to one that died when the regular session ended March 13, 2026. If it had advanced, it would have created a new “conscience” exemption for parents opting children out of school immunizations, required health care workers to provide alternative vaccine schedules and made ivermectin available without a prescription.

The fight has become more politically fraught as measles spreads. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed Florida had 134 confirmed measles cases as of April 23, the fourth highest total in the country. Florida Department of Health data put the state’s count at 131 as of April 17. Florida school immunization rules still require protection against polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B and chickenpox, with additional Tdap requirements for seventh grade.

Supporters of the bill, including Yarborough, have framed it as a matter of “transparency,” “educated decision-making” and parental empowerment. But pediatricians and health-care practitioners warned in earlier hearings that widening exemptions could help spread preventable diseases, and Republican Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, captured the concern when she said her physician told her, “I don’t want to learn how to treat polio.”

The clash reveals more than a procedural dispute. It shows how measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases are forcing public-health concerns to overtake the anti-mandate politics that powered Florida’s post-pandemic identity. Senate President Ben Albritton’s office has not publicly commented, but the bill has already exposed a Republican rift that is likely to deepen as the Legislature confronts the limits of medical freedom rhetoric when childhood vaccines are back in the spotlight.