TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Governor Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday a new legislative proposal to permanently prohibit COVID-19 vaccinations, masking, and vaccine passport requirements during a “Prescribe Freedom” event in Panama City Beach.

The governor, who spoke alongside Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, announced the measures “will permanently protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, protects parents’ rights, and institutes additional protections that prevent discrimination based on COVID-19 vaccine status.”

The proposal includes the permanent prohibition of mandates, including:

  • COVID-19 vaccine passports in Florida
  • COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements in all Florida schools
  • COVID-19 masking requirements at businesses
  • Employers from hiring or firing based on “mRNA jabs”

“When the world lost its mind, Florida was a refuge of sanity, serving strongly as freedom’s linchpin,” DeSantis said. “These measures will ensure Florida remains this way and will provide landmark protections for free speech for medical practitioners.”

The proposal also plans to protect medical professionals’ freedom of speech, their right to disagree with the “preferred narrative” of the medical community, and the religious views of medical professionals.

“We need to lead with this by making all of these protections permanent in Florida statute which we are going to do in the upcoming legislative session,” DeSantis added.

In recent weeks, the Florida Supreme Court approved DeSantis’ petition to investigate alleged harms as a result of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna.

“We are going to work to hold these manufacturers accountable for this mRNA [vaccine] because they said there was no side effects, and we know that there have been, and there have been a lot,” DeSantis said at a private event in December.

In addition, the panel was also tasked with investigating the accuracy of what Florida officials call “representations,” or the idea that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines would end the pandemic and end viral transmission of COVID-19.