Trump Issues Executive Order Redesigning Childhood Vaccine Schedule

President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Health and Human Services to revise the United States childhood immunization schedule. The order calls for the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine to be split into three separate shots and for all recommended vaccines to be administered at distinct medical visits “to the maximum extent feasible.” It also reduces the number of vaccines with universal recommendations from 17 to 11 and places six vaccines—hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rotavirus, meningococcal disease, influenza and COVID-19—into a “shared clinical decision-making” category. The order tasks the U.S. attorney general with challenging state laws that conflict with the new guidance.

The Guardian

Earlier this year the CDC issued updated vaccination recommendations, but a federal judge blocked those changes. In January, the Department of Health and Human Services attempted a similar schedule revision, which was also halted by the courts. The current order revives the defunct HHS Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines to implement the changes within 90 days.

• The order frames the plan as the nation’s “gold-standard” childhood vaccination recommendations.

• Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy referenced an “environmental exposure” in the mid-1990s as a factor affecting children, linking the discussion to autism despite a scientific consensus that vaccines do not cause the condition.

The Guardian

• Full recommendations retained for 11 diseases: measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTaP), polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus (HPV), and varicella.

The Guardian

• High-risk or shared-decision categories: monoclonal antibodies for RSV; hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal ACWY, dengue, meningococcal B; plus the six vaccines placed in shared decision-making.

The Guardian

• “Together, there could be a possibility they’re quite lethal,” — Donald Trump, president

The Guardian

• “Today we’re proud to officially announce the United States of America’s gold standard childhood vaccination recommendations. That has to do with many subjects including autism in particular,” — Donald Trump, president

The Guardian

• “This executive order lets political appointees attempt to overrule decades of peer-reviewed science and dictate vaccine schedules to American families,” — Rep. Frank Pallone