Trump signs executive order reducing recommended childhood vaccines to 11
Executive order signed at the White House limits federal support to 11 childhood vaccines and proposes splitting the MMR shot into three separate vaccines.
President Donald Trump last night signed an executive order that narrows the list of vaccines the federal government will support for children in the United States, limiting the recommended childhood immunization program to 11 vaccines.
The order also calls for the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to be broken up into three separate vaccinations to be administered individually rather than as a single combined shot.
Speaking at the signing ceremony at the White House, Trump framed the move as an alignment with what he called a higher standard for childhood vaccination. "My administration from this moment recognizes the recommendations of the gold standard for vaccinating children, which include only 11 core vaccines against the most serious and dangerous diseases, plus MMR, which we hope will be split," he said.
Role of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The change follows efforts led by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time critic of vaccines, who pushed to remove the universal recommendation to vaccinate children against hepatitis B and to shrink the overall list of recommended vaccines, citing a claimed link between vaccines and autism.
Kennedy previously removed vaccines against six of the 17 diseases covered by the American vaccination program in January, a decision that was later challenged in federal court. The executive order states that the federal government will henceforth support only the remaining 11 vaccines and that it confirms the changes initiated by Kennedy, despite the ongoing judicial proceedings.
Photo: press material from the event
