Trump signs executive order changing childhood vaccine recommendations
President Trump issued an order that would limit and tier childhood vaccines, citing autism despite a lack of scientific evidence, prompting criticism from medical groups and officials.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that proposes new guidelines for U.S. childhood vaccinations. The order calls for fewer vaccines to be recommended for all children and suggests a tiered system in which certain shots, such as those for RSV and hepatitis A and B, would be advised only for high-risk children. It also proposes administering the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine as three separate injections and spacing vaccinations over multiple visits.
The White House released the order without referencing autism, but the president repeatedly linked the changes to the condition during his remarks. > "Today, we're proud to officially announce the United States of America's Gold Standard Childhood Vaccination Recommendations and that has to do with many subjects, but including autism in particular," Trump said. > "In those times, people were much healthier and of course, the high rates of autism now observed did not exist. So, there's a reason for such epidemic rates of autism. And we're going to bring it back to much closer to where it was."
The American Academy of Pediatrics called the order "disheartening" and "dangerous," warning that it could create confusion and increase vaccine hesitancy. The academy’s president, Dr. Andrew Racine, said there is no new evidence to justify major changes to immunization guidance and that delaying or skipping shots is risky, especially as schools reopen.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the agency’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health will launch a two-year initiative to investigate the biological causes of autism, pledging to explore every plausible hypothesis.
Medical experts reiterated that extensive research has found no link between vaccines and autism. Dr. Jon LaPook noted that splitting the hepatitis B vaccine could increase the risk of infection, and Dr. Céline Gounder cited Japan’s 1990s experience, where separating the MMR vaccine led to a sharp decline in coverage and cases of hearing loss. Pediatrician Dr. Richard Besser described the order as injecting politics into a medical decision that should be made between parents and doctors.
The order also directs the Department of Health and Human Services to review vaccine sequencing and timing within 90 days. State health departments, not the federal government, set school immunization requirements, and a federal judge previously blocked the CDC’s effort to reduce the number of recommended childhood vaccines.
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician, criticized the order, stating that the president lacks the expertise to alter vaccine policy and that breaking up combination shots could increase the number of injections children receive.
The administration’s move comes amid ongoing debates over vaccine schedules, with the CDC having recommended a reduction in 2024 and the American Academy of Pediatrics maintaining a broader recommendation covering 18 diseases.