President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing a major revision of the nation’s recommended childhood vaccination schedule, calling for the number of diseases covered by universal immunization recommendations to be reduced from 18 to 11 while expanding parental choice in consultation with physicians.

The executive order reinforces the broad vaccine policy changes announced earlier this year by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., although those earlier revisions remain tied up in federal court.

Under the new directive, only vaccines covering 11 diseases would remain universally recommended for children. Vaccinations removed from the universal schedule would instead be recommended for high-risk individuals or administered through what officials describe as shared clinical decision-making between parents and their children’s doctors.

Administration officials emphasized that the order does not eliminate access to any vaccines. Kennedy said Monday that the goal is to provide families with greater flexibility in making medical decisions. While the federal childhood immunization schedule serves as guidance rather than a legal mandate, many schools and childcare providers rely on it when setting their own vaccination requirements.

During the announcement, Trump connected the revised recommendations to concerns over increasing autism diagnoses in the United States, despite decades of scientific research finding no causal relationship between vaccines and autism.

“While we do not know exactly what the cause is with respect to autism, it is essential to our research efforts that we have the very best vaccine recommendations in the entire world, so we’re reducing them,” Trump said.

The executive order recommends that vaccines for COVID-19, rotavirus, influenza, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and bacterial meningitis be administered through shared clinical decision-making rather than as routine universal immunizations.

At the same time, the administration continues to recommend universal childhood vaccination against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), pneumococcal disease, HPV, and chickenpox.

The order also specifies that certain vaccines—including those for RSV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, dengue, and two forms of bacterial meningitis—should continue to be recommended for children considered at elevated risk.

Heidi Overton, deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy, said the executive order is intended to move forward with Kennedy’s vaccine reforms while the earlier policy changes remain blocked by the courts.

According to the order, childhood vaccines should be administered during separate medical appointments rather than combined into fewer visits. Health experts have noted that such a change could significantly increase the number of doctor appointments required during childhood and may also increase out-of-pocket costs for some families.

The directive also calls for the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to be replaced with three separate injections. Because no individual FDA-approved vaccines currently exist for those diseases, the order instructs Kennedy to explore ways to make separate vaccines available.

Throughout his second term, Trump has repeatedly argued that children receive too many vaccines and has questioned the safety of the combined MMR vaccine compared with separate injections. During Monday’s announcement, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller also asserted, without presenting evidence, that giving children “shot after shot after shot” contributes to vaccine injuries.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has said its recommended immunization schedule—consistent with CDC guidance issued before Kennedy became health secretary—is designed around the ages at which vaccines provide the strongest immune response and the periods when children are most vulnerable to serious disease.

The combined MMR vaccine has been in use since 1971 and is currently administered in two doses, typically between 12 and 15 months of age and again between 4 and 6 years old. Administering separate vaccines instead would increase the total number of injections from two to six.

The policy shift comes as the United States has already recorded more measles cases this year than in any full year over the past 35 years.

Trump’s executive order also authorizes the attorney general to pursue legal action against states that do not provide religious and medical exemptions to vaccination requirements.

The directive builds upon an earlier executive order seeking to align America’s childhood vaccination recommendations more closely with those of other developed nations.

Some current and former Trump administration officials have pointed to Denmark as a model, noting that its universal childhood vaccination schedule does not routinely include immunizations for influenza, COVID-19, RSV, chickenpox, and several other diseases. Many public health experts, however, argue that comparisons are limited because the United States faces different infectious disease patterns due to its larger and more diverse population, and because Denmark operates under a universal healthcare system while the United States does not.

{Matzav.com}