South Carolina's legislature passed the ivermectin bill that Florida Republicans killed.
DeSantis confirmed on Friday he was ready to sign – until his own party stopped him.
Here's what Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez doesn't want you to know about why he did it.
The Bill DeSantis Couldn't Get Across the Finish Line
Florida's Senate passed SB 1756 on March 9.
The vote was 23 to 15.
The bill wasn't radical.
It let pharmacists dispense ivermectin to adults 18 and older without a prescription – behind the counter, with a pharmacist consultation, the same way naloxone works in most states.
It also created a conscience exemption from K-12 vaccine mandates, made Florida's ban on mRNA discrimination permanent, and barred forced vaccinations during public health emergencies.
DeSantis confirmed on X exactly where he stood: "The ivermectin bill was passed by Republicans in the Florida Senate but then killed by Republicans in the Florida House. I was ready to sign it."
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2052549239327055881?s=20
Speaker Perez killed it – and his stated reason wasn't about ivermectin at all.
He said he was uncomfortable with children attending school without vaccines for measles, mumps, polio, and chickenpox – diseases he noted have been addressed by vaccines "for decades."
That's a legitimate concern about a different part of the bill.
It's also a convenient reason to bury the whole thing.
When DeSantis called a special session to try again, not a single House Republican filed a companion bill.
DeSantis went back to X: "Voters elected Republicans to protect freedom against both the Big Tech cartel and the medical industrial complex. Yet, when given the chance to deliver for their constituents, not a single Republican House member could even be bothered to file a bill. Typical political shenanigans."
What Florida Republicans Just Said No To
Ivermectin has been FDA-approved for human use since 1987 – for river blindness, strongyloidiasis, head lice – nearly four decades of established human use before the media decided to call it horse dewormer.
The FDA's objection isn't to ivermectin.
It's specifically to ivermectin for COVID-19, a use case conservative physicians have debated aggressively since 2020.
Florida's bill wasn't a COVID treatment bill.
It was an access bill – letting adults decide, with a pharmacist's guidance, whether to use a drug with a four-decade safety record.
Arkansas went first. Tennessee followed.
https://twitter.com/JoeTippen/status/2045301657756639391?s=20
Louisiana, Idaho, and then Texas – Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 25 in August 2025, making Texas the fifth state.
South Carolina's House passed it this week.
Florida is not on that list.
Six States Said Yes While Perez Said No
RFK Jr. – Trump's own Health and Human Services Secretary – flew to the Texas Capitol to back the push.
"I think Americans should have the choice," Kennedy said.
That's the Trump administration's position on medical freedom.
Texas passed it. South Carolina just passed it. Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Idaho all passed it.
Florida's Senate passed it 23 to 15.
And Speaker Perez looked at all of that – looked at DeSantis standing ready to sign – and said no.
The Florida Republican Party built its national brand on fighting COVID mandates, fighting vaccine coercion, fighting the federal health bureaucracy.
https://twitter.com/TheRubberDuck79/status/2052574490165465306?s=20
DeSantis staked his political career on it.
Then the man running the Florida House handed the medical establishment a win it couldn't get on its own.
Perez Chose the Wrong Side of History on This One
The drug Perez just protected the establishment from is the same drug that won its co-developer the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015.
The media called it horse dewormer.
They ran that phrase until it stuck – even though doctors around the world have prescribed ivermectin to humans for nearly four decades.
Some Republicans absorbed that mockery.
They let the Washington Post write the script, and now they govern accordingly when nobody's watching.
Perez didn't block ivermectin because the science said to.
He blocked a bill that said Florida adults are capable of making an informed decision – with their pharmacist, about a drug approved before most of his constituents graduated high school – without a bureaucrat's permission.
That's not protecting public health.
That's protecting the people who spent five years lying to yours.
Sources:
- Ron DeSantis, posts on X, May 8, 2026 and April 28, 2026.
- "Florida House Speaker Says No to Medical Freedom Bill," Central Florida Public Media, April 28, 2026.
- "Florida Speaker Kills DeSantis AI Safeguards Bill," The Daily Signal, April 28, 2026.
- "South Carolina House Passes OTC Ivermectin Bill," Breitbart News, May 7, 2026.
- Office of Governor Greg Abbott, statement on signing House Bill 25, August 2025.
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr., remarks at Texas Capitol, August 2025, as reported by Fox News.
- Florida Senate, SB 1756 (Medical Freedom Act), passed March 9, 2026, vote 23–15.
- Nobel Prize Committee, "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015," NobelPrize.org, October 5, 2015.
