WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump has signed an Executive Order to limit the number of childhood vaccines.
The Order recommends all children get immunizations to provide protection for 11 diseases - a decrease from the 18 diseases recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2024.
The immunizations recommended for all children are for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus, and varicella or chicken pox.
Speaking at the Oval Office after signing the order on Monday, Trump said his administration 'is recognizing gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations for only 11 core vaccinations against the most serious and dangerous diseases.'
'Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today. In those times, people were much healthier and of course the high rates of autism now observed did not exist,' according to Trump.
The Order sets Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations that maximize parental choices over vaccinations for their children.
The Order recommends splitting the combined MMR vaccine - for mumps, measles and rubella - into three single-disease shots and recommends administering all vaccines during separate medical visits to give parents more options regarding the timing and frequency of this vaccine administration.
States that enact school vaccine requirements are advised to consider the Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations and updating their laws to reflect the recommendations.
The Order directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, through the HHS Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines, to present plans to the President to improve vaccine research and options for American parents, including continuous evaluation of the risk and benefit profiles of all childhood vaccines based on U.S. and international data.
The new order is based on a scientific assessment that HHS conducted in January, comparing U.S. childhood immunization recommendations with those of peer nations, analyzing vaccine uptake and public trust, evaluating clinical and epidemiological evidence and knowledge gaps, and examining vaccine mandates.
The scientific assessment found that the United States currently recommends more childhood vaccines than any peer nation, including more than twice as many vaccine doses as some European nations, and identified a set of consensus vaccines that are consistently recommended in all peer countries.
In 1980, American children following the CDC immunization schedule received 23 vaccine doses in 7 shots against 7 different diseases. In 2024, the recommended number of routine vaccines had risen to at least 84 vaccine doses in at least 57 shots for 17 diseases, plus the RSV monoclonal antibody immunization for a total of 18 diseases. This is more than other developed nations, according to the White House.
The scientific assessment recommends prioritizing 11 routine childhood vaccines, while preserving flexibility for parents and doctors to make individualized decisions for higher-risk children through shared clinical decision-making.
The scientific assessment also found that, instead of implementing vaccination mandates, most peer nations maintain high childhood vaccination rates through public trust and education.
The U.S. is among a minority of peer nations with childhood vaccine mandates enacted by individual U.S. states for school entry.
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