President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday calling for major changes to federal childhood vaccination recommendations, including spacing out certain shots and giving parents and doctors greater flexibility over when vaccines are administered.
The order directs federal health officials to reassess the timing and sequencing of routine childhood vaccinations and encourages vaccines to be administered individually rather than combining several immunizations during the same medical visit.
Trump also called for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, commonly known as MMR, to eventually be separated into three individual shots administered during different visits.
“Effective immediately, my administration is recognizing gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations for only 11 core vaccinations against the most serious and dangerous diseases, along with the MMR, which hopefully will be split up,” Trump said during an Oval Office signing ceremony Monday.
The move represents the latest step by the Trump administration to reshape federal vaccination policy and follows previous changes pursued by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The administration has sought to reduce the number of vaccines universally recommended for children while shifting some immunizations toward recommendations for higher-risk groups or decisions made between parents and doctors.
Trump’s latest order directs HHS to further reassess the timing and sequencing of childhood vaccines. It also promotes administering single-disease vaccines “to the maximum extent feasible.”
One obstacle to the administration’s preferred approach involves the MMR vaccine. Separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are not currently available in the US, meaning manufacturers would need to make individual versions before the shots could be widely administered separately.
Trump argued Monday that spreading vaccinations across additional medical appointments would give children more time between shots. He suggested that vaccinations for 1-year-old children could be divided among roughly five visits rather than administering several during a single appointment.
The administration has framed the changes as an effort to give parents and physicians greater control over children’s health decisions while bringing US recommendations more closely in line with practices in some other developed countries.
Trump has also repeatedly questioned whether the number and timing of childhood vaccinations could be associated with rising autism diagnoses. Extensive scientific research has not established a causal relationship between vaccines and autism, and major medical organizations maintain that vaccines recommended for children are safe and effective.
Medical organizations have pushed back against the administration’s approach.
Critics argue that spreading vaccines across more appointments could leave children susceptible to preventable diseases for longer periods and that vaccination schedules are developed based on evidence about when children are most vulnerable to particular illnesses, per Trending Politics.
The administration, however, maintains that its approach will provide families with greater flexibility without preventing parents from choosing additional vaccinations for their children.
Trump began pushing for a broader review of the childhood vaccination schedule last year, directing federal health officials to examine how the US compares with other developed countries.
He followed that effort with additional action directing federal health agencies to consider ways of providing “maximum flexibility to parents and doctors” over the timing and sequencing of routine immunizations.
Monday’s order goes further by explicitly promoting separate appointments and individual vaccines.
States will continue to play a significant role in determining vaccination requirements, particularly for children attending schools. The federal government generally issues vaccination recommendations, while state and local governments determine most school immunization requirements.
