President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order that called for childhood vaccine recommendations to be revamped, promoting a belief he’s long held that shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits.
“I’m delighted to be here in the Oval Office as our administration takes another historic step in our mission to make America healthy again,” he said. “Today, we’re proud to officially announce the United States of America’s Gold Standard Childhood Vaccination Recommendations.”
The order recommends administering each vaccine in its own visit and separating out the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, commonly known as MMR, into three separate shots. Separate MMR shots are not currently available in the U.S.
Trump, signing the order in the Oval Office, thanked Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for his help getting this recommendation together and his work at the department.
The executive order also reduces the number of diseases for which the vaccine is universally recommended from 18 to 11. It does not prohibit or eliminate other vaccines.
Vaccines that are no longer universally recommended would fall under “shared clinical decision-making,” which means parents and doctors would decide whether children should receive them based on individual circumstances.
“Parents can still choose to give their children all of the vaccinations if they wish. It’s up to the parents,” Trump said. “We’re making recommendations that are strong, but it’s up to the parents if they wish, and they will be covered by insurance.”
The seven no longer universally recommended vaccines are hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, rotavirus, meningococcal disease, RSV and COVID-19. The COVID-19 vaccine was already removed from the recommended vaccines list earlier in the Trump administration but is grouped in with the others that are no longer recommended.
The order also changes up the schedule for when children will receive vaccines. For example, Trump said during the press conference Monday that a 1-year-old will have five separate doctor’s visits instead of one visit for five vaccines that previously were one.
Public health experts have raised concerns that spacing out shots puts children at an increased risk of becoming infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before they return for their next visit, The Associated Press noted.
Sen. Cassidy criticizes Trump’s order
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a doctor, criticized the executive order online and said it was “wrong.”
“The President does not have the expertise to make these changes,” he said online. “Breaking up vaccines will mean children will have to get more shots to get the same protection, not fewer shots. It will increase hesitancy and make children less safe.”
Cassidy recommended parents listen to their children’s pediatricians about vaccines rather than an executive order, adding, “this is so wrong.”
The change of the MMR vaccine also outlines how spreading out the vaccines into separate appointments gives parents more control over the frequency their children get vaccines.
Trump, during the press conference, claimed that the MMR vaccine, given all at once, carries a possibility of being “quite lethal.” Given separately, he said, it looks like they are “not at all lethal, but just very effective.”
He was later asked by a reporter about evidence suggesting that the MMR vaccine was lethal, and Trump replied “no” but he has heard that some people say it’s true.
The order also asks states that require vaccines for school attendance to consider updating their laws to reflect the new national guidelines.
It’s an attempt to bring U.S. childhood vaccine recommendations more in line with what the administration describes as “best practices” that have been developed in other countries.
The White House is framing the new guidelines as giving parents more choice over vaccines, which have become a hotly debated topic in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic and a measles outbreak impacting mostly unvaccinated kids across the country.