Trump Signs Order to Cut Childhood Vaccine List and Break Up MMR Shot

WASHINGTON —

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday that calls for cutting the number of recommended childhood vaccines and for splitting the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot into three separate doses, according to the order and accounts from the signing in the Oval Office.

The order would trim the list of vaccines recommended for all children to 11 diseases, down from 18, a White House official said on a call with reporters. Vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease, HPV and varicella would keep full recommendations. Five more, including RSV antibodies and hepatitis A and B shots for high-risk groups, would apply only to children considered at elevated risk. Six others, including flu and COVID-19 vaccines, would move into a category requiring a doctor to weigh individual risks and benefits before recommending them, according to the Guardian.

The order also directs the Department of Health and Human Services to work toward offering the MMR vaccine as three individual shots, and says immunizations should, "to the maximum extent feasible," be given at separate doctor visits rather than combined. No separately licensed measles, mumps or rubella vaccines currently exist in the United States, and the Guardian reported that developing and approving them could take years. The order also directs the attorney general to challenge state laws that conflict with it, even though the federal government has no authority over school vaccine mandates, which are set by states.

Autism claims resurface

At the signing, Trump repeated the disproven claim that vaccines cause autism, saying children today are given "a bottle of soda poured into a little child's body" when they get combined shots. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who founded an anti-vaccine nonprofit before joining the administration, said "something happened in the mid-90s that changed our children" and called it an environmental exposure. Multiple studies, including a 2019 Danish study of more than 650,000 children, have found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website that there is "no published scientific evidence that shows any benefit in separating the combination MMR vaccine into three individual shots," and that getting vaccinated "is much safer than getting measles, mumps, or rubella."

Pushback from doctors

Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, called the order "disheartening" and "dangerous" in a statement, noting it arrives as measles cases in the United States hit a 35-year high and children head back to school. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who chairs the Senate health committee, wrote on social media that the order was "wrong," adding, "Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism." The order builds on changes to CDC recommendations made earlier this year that a federal judge halted after major medical organizations argued the administration had acted unlawfully, according to France 24.