Trump calls Florida's move to eliminate vaccine mandates a 'tough stance': 'You have vaccines that work'

"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."

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."

"All of them," Ladapo said during a news conference. "Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery."

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.

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."