President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday aimed at dramatically reshaping federal childhood vaccine recommendations, including changes to how immunizations are administered and which vaccines are broadly recommended for children.
The executive order, titled “Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations,” directs federal health agencies to reconsider the nation’s current childhood immunization policies, according to The Washington Post, which first obtained a draft of the order.
One of the most significant changes involves how children receive multiple vaccines. The Trump administration is pushing for childhood immunizations to be spread across separate medical appointments rather than having multiple vaccines administered during a single visit.
The order also calls for eventually breaking up the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three separate shots once individual versions become available in the United States.
Medical experts have maintained that the combined MMR vaccine is safe and effective. They have also warned that separating the vaccines could result in children remaining unprotected from the diseases for longer periods of time.
The administration is additionally seeking to reorganize childhood vaccines into different categories based on how broadly they should be recommended.
Under the changes, vaccines protecting against 11 diseases, including measles, polio and whooping cough, would continue to be broadly recommended for children.
Other vaccines would be recommended specifically for children considered at greater risk or would become a decision for parents and doctors to make together. Vaccines for the flu and COVID-19 would fall into the latter category under the administration’s plan.
Trump’s executive order also encourages states to reconsider their individual school vaccination requirements.
However, because states generally determine which vaccines children are required to receive before attending school, the Trump administration does not have the authority to directly rewrite those requirements through the executive order.
During Monday’s signing ceremony at the White House, Trump also raised the issue of autism while discussing the number of vaccines children receive.
“I wanna find what’s going on with autism,” Trump said. “It’s many, many times what it used to be years ago, and it gets progressively worse, and we’ve had progressively more and more vaccines.”
The article characterized Trump’s suggestion of a connection between vaccines and autism as an unfounded claim. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also promoted the theory.
Trump continued by criticizing what he described as the large amount of vaccines administered to children.
“Very simply, large amounts of vaccine — large amounts — like vats of vaccine are currently pumped into your child’s body,” Trump said.
The executive order marks a substantial change in federal immunization policy, directing health officials to reconsider not only which vaccines are routinely recommended for American children but also the way those vaccines are given.
The changes would maintain broad federal recommendations for vaccines against 11 diseases while shifting others, including flu and COVID-19 vaccines, toward recommendations based on individual risk or decisions made jointly between parents and their doctors.
[READ MORE: Ocasio-Cortez Says She Hasn’t Ruled Out Higher Office, Announces Decision to Freeze Her Eggs]
