President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 10 calling for spacing out childhood vaccines.
The order recommends administering the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine in three shots in separate visits.
“The Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations also recognize that the combined measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine should be administered in three separate single-disease shots once such products are domestically available and that, to the maximum extent feasible, all childhood immunizations should be administered at separate medical visits,” the order states.
The executive order calls for the attorney general to take “appropriate measures to further meritorious legal actions challenging state laws that conflict with states’ constitutional and Federal statutory obligations related to parental authority, religious freedom, disability accommodations, and equal protection under the law, including, to the extent applicable under Federal law, States’ obligations to provide religious and medical exemptions from childhood and adolescent immunization requirements.”
Public health experts say that vaccination delays could increase the chances that children are infected with diseases that vaccines can prevent before they return for their next appointment.
States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren—even though the order calls for revised vaccine recommendations.
Polls show that most Americans support school vaccine requirements, but Republicans are less likely than Democrats to view them as important.
Amid speculation that vaccines may be linked to autism, Trump has recently increased pressure on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to determine what causes autism, a goal Kennedy previously vowed to pursue through new research announced last year. During a Cabinet meeting last month, Trump asked Kennedy for an update on the research.
“How are you doing on the autism research?” Trump asked.
“We will have an answer for you,” Kennedy said.
Decades of scientific research have found that vaccines do not cause autism. Childhood vaccines are thoroughly researched, and safety tracking has continued as long as the shots have been given.
Trump’s executive order comes as kids return or are about to return to school.
The order also directs the Department of Justice, Department of Education, and Department of Health and Human Services to “take appropriate action to ensure that their contractors and grantees, including States and localities, are compliant with their constitutional and federal statutory obligations.”
The executive order is a win for the Make America Healthy Again movement, which has expressed skepticism of mandatory vaccines.
During the signing, Trump criticized what he called “72 jabs for ... beautiful, healthy, lovely delicate little children.”
Trump called for only 11 key vaccines. He said spreading out the shots was critical and said children should get their shots in one year with five separate visits.
