Florida plans to end all state vaccine mandates, including for children to attend schools, state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, a prominent immunization critic, announced Wednesday.

The move would make Florida the first-ever state in the U.S. to withdraw from the requirements that are credited with increasing vaccination rates in communities and preventing outbreaks of infectious diseases. The rollback could result in fewer school children getting immunized against deadly viruses such as polio and measles, and comes as Florida leads the Southeast in nonmedical vaccine exemptions among kindergartners.

"The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law, all of them. All of them. Every last one of them,"

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