Symbolic imageTrump cuts childhood vaccine recommendations and splits MMR shot
Trump signed an executive order on Monday cutting the childhood vaccines US agencies recommend and spacing out doses. Medical groups and Democratic lawmakers called it dangerous.
He signed it in the Oval Office with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., again tying shots to autism: today's high rates did not exist when children got far fewer vaccines, he said, while conceding "we do not know" the cause. Decades of studies have found no link. NIH director Jay Bhattacharya said at the signing that "science takes time". Le Monde notes the order lands as the US faces its worst measles epidemic in more than 30 years.
MMR to be split in three
The order tells the health department to plan separate measles, mumps and rubella shots, an option the US does not have. AAP president Andrew Racine said licensed separate vaccines would take over a decade.
List cut to eleven diseases
The CDC schedule drops to 11 diseases from 18 in 2024; Politika, citing Tanjug, put the old list at 17 vaccines. Hepatitis B, COVID-19 and flu leave the universal list but stay available if parents opt in.
Doctors and lawmakers object
ACP president Jan Carney called the changes "problematic and deeply concerning" and warned of extra copays and visits; senator Patty Murray told parents to ignore it.
Other opinions
Breitbart casts the order as parental choice and a "Gold Standard" matching peer nations; Serbia's Politika and Al Jazeera report only the decision, not the medical criticism.