Trump Signs Executive Order calling for Fewer childhood Vaccines

Trump Signs Executive Order calling for Fewer childhood Vaccines

USA President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order backing fewer routine vaccines for kids, calling to whittle down the number of recommended childhood shots to 11 while falsely tying immunizations to autism.

The order builds on the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the childhood shot schedule under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic. 

“This USA updated recommendation finally aligns the United States with other advanced and developed nations around the world,” Trump said during a briefing on Monday. “More importantly, it aligns us with common sense and knowledge.”

USA WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday calling for fewer childhood ​vaccinations by limiting the inoculation schedule to 11 immunizations, which he said would give U.S. children "gold-standard" protection and align the country with peer nations that recommend fewer shots.The ‌order advances a long-standing goal of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who has promoted a link between vaccines and autism that scientists have repeatedly debunked.

He also falsely tied vaccines to autism, suggesting multiple times that rising rates of childhood shots have led to an increase in autism diagnoses. Decades of scientific evidence has shown no link between autism and childhood vaccines.

He also called for splitting the combination measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine into three separate single-disease shots.

“The MMR we want to have separate visits, separate times. The vaccine being broken into three separate single doses and vaccines being administered in separate visits,” Trump said.

The order also directs the Department of Justice to investigate where states are in violation of USA exemptions for childhood vaccine mandates, including parental authority and disability USA accommodations as well as religious and medical reasons.

It’s not the first time the administration has taken aim at the MMR vaccine and the related MMRV shot, which adds the varicella vaccine to inoculate against chickenpox. Last year, a key vaccine advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also weakened recommendations for the MMRV shot for children under age 4.

But some health experts say that splitting up the shot raises the chance of missed appointments and skipped immunizations because it requires more doctor visits. Speaking to reporters after signing the order, Trump acknowledged it may be hard for some parents to take a child to the doctor multiple times, but argued it would be USA worth it.

“It’s inconvenient, it’s five stops, but it’s something that I think will have a huge impact on autism,” he said.

There is no scientific evidence that combining the shots leads to higher autism risk.

Asked if he has any concerns about parents being able to afford multiple co-pays for doctor’s visits, Trump said “we’re going to work with the families” to help them afford the costs, without saying specifically how.

The White House also confirmed that changes in vaccine recommendations would not change insurance coverage for the shots.

Trump’s executive order comes as the U.S. logs its worst year for measles infections in decades. Vaccination rates for children have fallen since the USA Covid-19 pandemic.

"Effective immediately, my administration is recognizing gold-standard childhood vaccine recommendations for only 11 core vaccinations against the most serious and dangerous diseases, along with the MMR, which hopefully will be split up," Trump said during a White House signing ceremony where he repeatedly cited a growing number of U.S. autism diagnoses.

"There are ​some groups that have virtually no problem with autism," Trump said. "They're groups that aren't big into the world of vaccines, so there is something wrong."

Physicians roundly rejected the action, saying no ​new science warranted a change, and that the U.S. schedule reflects decades of evidence and the specific health needs of Americans, rejecting the comparison to other ⁠countries. Fewer recommended shots will leave more children exposed to preventable diseases, they said.

The order also recommends splitting the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three shots taken at separate visits.

Kennedy in January ​cut the U.S. immunization schedule to remove shots against six out of 17 diseases, a move halted by a federal court ruling. The executive order says it reaffirms Kennedy's overhaul despite the ongoing litigation.

Existing coverage under ​the Vaccines for Children program relied on by many families will continue, a senior administration official said. The government-funded program provides vaccines for those who may not be able to afford them.

The order directs the Justice Department to challenge state vaccination laws, escalating a federal fight over school immunization requirements set by states. It instructs the attorney general to sue over state laws the administration says conflict with parental authority, religious freedom, disability accommodations and equal protection, including rules ​on religious and medical exemptions from immunization mandates.

HEALTH EXPERTS REJECT CHANGES

Medical associations, public health experts, and vaccine makers also criticized the order.

The main outcome would be "confusion for parents," said Dr. Aaron Milstone of the ​American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases. Conflicting messages, he added, would likely lead parents to delay vaccination.

Merck said there is no published scientific evidence showing any benefit to splitting the MMR shot into three, and that ‌using the individual ⁠components increases injections and can lead to delayed or missed immunizations.

Dr. Elizabeth Mack, a pediatric critical care physician in Charleston, South Carolina, said no licensed single-antigen measles, mumps or rubella vaccines were available in the United States, making the recommendation unfeasible as written.

"We don't have a system that supports this," she said, questioning whether extra visits would be required and if they would be reimbursed by insurers.

Mike Ybarra, chief medical officer of pharmaceutical lobby group PhRMA, said the schedule was built on decades of rigorous research and any changes "should be driven by the same high standard of evidence."

The order was also criticized by Republican Senator ​Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who chairs ​the Senate health committee and shepherded Trump's health ⁠agency nominees through, casting the decisive vote to confirm Kennedy.

"I'm a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The president does not have the expertise to make these changes," Cassidy, who lost his Republican primary to a Trump-endorsed challenger and will leave office in January, said in a statement.

ADMINISTRATION CLAIMS CHALLENGED

Trump, Kennedy and ​other officials said the order means U.S. children would receive far fewer than the 72 injections recommended under the previous schedule.

Vaccine experts say that ​figure is inflated, because it ⁠counts combination shots such as MMR as multiple injections, and assumes annual flu and COVID-19 doses. Other developed countries that may recommend fewer shots face different disease risks and have different healthcare systems.

Kennedy said health agencies had numerous efforts underway including a new initiative focused on the "foundational causes and biology of autism."

AAP President Dr. Andrew Racine called the administration's plans to again look for a link between vaccines and autism misguided, adding that ⁠40 well-designed studies ​had already examined the question over a long period of time and found no link.

"The issue is not that the ​science isn't done. The science is done," said Dr. Alycia Halladay, chief science officer at the Autism Science Foundation. "The issue is that some people choose not to believe what the studies clearly show because the results don't conform to their beliefs."

Reporting by Jacob ​Bogage and Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington, Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Additional reporting by Michael Erman in New York, Ismail Shakil in Ottawa, and Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto; Editing by Stephen Coates and Rosalba O'Brien

US President Donald Trump has signed an order that calls for fewer childhood vaccines and also recommends splitting the mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) shots.

"Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today," Trump said. "In those times, people were much healthier and of course the high rates of autism now observed did not exist."

The president has long cast doubt on the safety of MMR vaccines, but multiple studies have found no connection between the shots and autism.

The order also recommends that the number of childhood vaccines drop to 11 from the existing 18 recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Trump's order serves as guidance, not a mandate, since shots required for school attendance are set at the state level, rather than by the federal government.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, the president said his administration "is recognising gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations for only 11 core vaccinations against the most serious and dangerous diseases".

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The immunisations recommended for all children under the order are for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus, and varicella or chicken pox.

"We're reducing them," Trump said. "It's not only that you're doing fewer vaccines, or jabs, as they say, but you're doing them in a series of visits to the doctor."

The president suggested the MMR vaccine could be "quite lethal" if given at once. He compared it to pouring a bottle of soda into a child's body.

When a reporter asked for evidence of the "lethal" claim, Trump said: "What I've heard is that there are some people that say it is that way."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the MMR vaccine carries a very small risk of febrile seizures for young children. Those with health issues, including severe allegeric reactions or weakened immune systems, are advised to consult with healthcare providers before taking the shots.The agency says "most people who get MMR vaccine do not have any serious problems with it", and that getting the vaccine "is much safer than getting measles, mumps, or rubella".According to the CDC, there is "no published scientific evidence that shows any benefit in separating the combination MMR vaccine into three individual shots".

Experts say that allowing time between jabs means children are more likely to contract diseases in the interim or that they are more likely to miss appointments if there are multiple shots.Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F Kennedy Jr said the proposed changes were meant to give parents choice, not prohibit access to childhood vaccines.Since taking office in 2025, Kennedy has sought to change and loosen vaccine regulations. During a tense 20-minute interview on CNN last week, Kennedy insisted he had "never questioned the efficacy of the MMR vaccine".Trump administration officials have said the order means children in the US would receive much less than the 72 shots recommended under the previous vaccine schedule, a figure that assumes annual flu and Covid-19 doses.Dr Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said Trump's executive order was "dangerous" and not based on "gold-standard science".

"Delaying or skipping shots is risky, especially as measles continues to spread and children go back to school," Racine said.Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who was the deciding vote in the Senate to confirm Kennedy as health secretary, also admonished Trump's executive order on Monday, labelling it "wrong"."The President does not have the expertise to make these changes," Cassidy, a physician, wrote on X. "Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism."Experts fear that if parents refrain from getting their children vaccinated as a result of the discredited idea that childhood vaccines are linked to autism, it risks the re-emergence of diseases like measles.

Multiple studies have found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. A recent high-quality study from Denmark in 2019 looked at 657,461 children and concluded that the data did not support the MMR vaccine causing or triggering autism.On its website, the CDC recommends that two doses of the combined MMR vaccine be given to children, starting with the first dose at 12-15 months and the second between the ages of four and six.How often and how many vaccines children in the US receive is based on the times when vaccines will work best with their immune systems and when they are most vulnerable to certain diseases, according to the AAP.is no medical reason to delay or skip recommended immunisations, the AAP says.Trump's order also calls for the development of alternatives to aluminium in vaccines, and to test if those alternatives are safer and more effective.But the AAP says studies have found no significant health risks associated with the tiny amounts of aluminium salts in vaccines.

Small amounts of aluminium salts - which are found naturally in soil, water and foods - have been used in some vaccines for decades in order to boost the body's immune response.That means lesser quantities of the vaccine and fewer doses are needed, according to AAP.

Posted on 2026/08/11 08:51 AM