ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Florida\u2019s top health official called the measles vaccine \u201ceffective\u201d Friday, but stopped short of imploring people to get inoculated against the disease.<\/p>\n
Dr. Joseph Ladapo was in Orlando Friday for an event focused on mental health and kids. <\/p>\n
Toward the end of the event–after asking about the surgeon general\u2019s recommendation against the use of antipsychotic drugs to treat children — News 6 took an opportunity to ask him about the rise in measles cases.<\/p>\n
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put out new data Friday, showing that measles cases in the United States have reached a 35-year-high.<\/p>\n
According to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the number of measles cases in Florida spiked from seven in 2025 to 141 in 2026.<\/p>\n
News 6\u2019s Mike Valente asked Ladapo what he would say to families about the measles vaccine.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s gotta get the vaccine,\u201d Ladapo said with a smirk.<\/p>\n
Ladapo then proceeded to reference a cluster of cases in Collier County, noting that many of them were associated with a private Catholic university, Ave Maria University.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe measles vaccine is developed with cells that are progeny from an aborted fetus,\u201d Ladapo said. \u201cAnd whether there is a connection between the fact that some of the students at this university chose not to receive that vaccine and it happens to be a vaccine that is related to the practice of abortion, I\u2019m not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
On an American Academy of Pediatrics\u2019 webpage addressing the claim that vaccines contain fetal cells, the organization called it false. You can see that page HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSome vaccines involve growing viruses in human cell cultures originally developed from two aborted fetuses in the 1960s,\u201d the website\u2019s page reads. \u201cThese cell lines are still going, so no new aborted fetuses are ever needed. Purification processes filter the vaccine during production, and no fetal tissue remains.\u201d<\/p>\n