US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Monday that calls for fewer vaccines for children and that advocates for updated vaccination guidelines in support of his long-held but debunked belief that childhood vaccinations ought to be administered in separate doctor's appointments.
The order recommends giving all childhood vaccinations at separate visits whenever feasible, which had earlier been blocked by a federal judge, and dividing the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three distinct single-disease injections,
It also directs the country's health department to improve research on vaccines, which are already extensively studied, and presents a plan to offer separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines for children, since that is not currently an option in the United States.
Signing the order at the Oval Office on Monday, Trump repeatedly implied that the timing or quantity of vaccinations could contribute to the rising prevalence of autism spectrum disease, despite decades of research and scientific consensus clearly concluding that there is no connection.
Trump then called the announcement a “major victory for parents' rights, religious and constitutional rights, and for the gold standard science.”
The renewed focus on vaccines marks a departure from the Trump administration’s recent efforts to emphasize less controversial health policies related to healthy eating, drug price negotiations, and medical fraud crackdowns ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Public health experts have raised concerns that spacing out shots as Trump suggests can lead to an increased risk that children become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit.
Childhood vaccines—and how and when to give them in combination—go through rigorous studies, and safety tracking continues for years as the shots are used.
According to Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the announcement spreads uncertainty, fear, and confusion where “there doesn’t need to be any of that.” He disputed Trump’s recommendations and said previous ones should stand.
“Science about vaccines and their efficacy has not changed,” he said. “The distribution of viruses and other pathogens in our environment has not changed. Children in this country have not changed in the last 48 hours.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Republican chair of the Senate health committee, slammed the executive order in a social media post, saying vaccines are safe and do not cause autism.
“I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong,” the Louisiana senator wrote. “The President does not have the expertise to make these changes.”
States, not federal government, have power to mandate vaccines
Although the directive calls for updated immunisation guidelines, states, not the federal government, have the power to mandate vaccines for children in the US.
But already, the order seen in a White House information sheet urges states that have school vaccination mandates to think about revising their legislation to reflect the administration's desired timeline.
Last December, Trump ordered the Department of Health and Human Services an order to examine how comparable countries handle vaccine recommendations and think about updating US guidelines in response.
In response, the government recommended fewer vaccinations for each child; however, this decision has subsequently been overturned by a court. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention typically needs to approve any changes to federal recommendations for paediatric vaccines.
While in a leadership role at the US Coast Guard, Dr. Erica Schwartz, the newly Senate-confirmed director of the CDC, oversaw programs encouraging vaccination of military members.
Throughout his second term, Trump has been fixated on connecting autism to vaccines. He has recently ramped up pressure on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist before he entered politics, to identify the cause of autism, something Kennedy had pledged to do with new research unveiled last year.
Last month, Trump publicly prodded the health secretary for an update on autism research in a Cabinet meeting.
“How are you doing on the autism research?” Trump asked.
“We will have an answer for you,” Kennedy said.
Decades of research and scientific consensus have conclusively shown that there is no connection between childhood vaccinations and autism.
