Trump proposes splitting childhood vaccines into five smaller doses, experts say plan is ineffective
President Trump announced a proposal to break certain childhood immunizations into five smaller shots given six months apart, a plan that vaccine specialists say would render the vaccines ineffective and offers no safety benefit.
President Donald Trump said his administration will recommend that some childhood vaccines be administered in five separate doses, each containing about 20% of the standard amount and spaced six months apart. He argued that giving a "small amount of the vaccine" would avoid overwhelming a child's body.
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said the proposal would make the vaccines ineffective and would not improve safety. > "What he’s suggesting would not work. He’s basically saying he wants to give vaccines in a manner in which they wouldn’t be protective," Offit told CNN.
Trump also claimed that removing certain vaccines from the schedule would lead to a "massive reduction in autism," despite scientific studies finding no link between vaccines and autism. The specific vaccines he referenced were not identified, though he mentioned the polio vaccine as an example.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has not provided details on the plan. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who stood beside Trump at the briefing, later praised the president at an anti-vaccine conference, calling him a "strong and steadfast friend" to vaccine skeptics.
Experts noted that vaccine dosing is based on extensive research to balance efficacy and safety, and that the standard measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) dose is only 0.5 milliliters—far less than the volume Trump described. Offit emphasized that vaccines represent a tiny fraction of the immune challenges children face daily and do not overwhelm the immune system.