President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order that calls for changing the childhood vaccine schedule. With him in the Oval Office, from left, are Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of NIH; Jayme Franklin, a conservative activist; Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Dr. Heidi Overton, deputy director of domestic policy for the White House.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
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Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump signed another executive order aimed at trying to upend the way U.S. children are vaccinated against dangerous infectious diseases.
The new executive order, signed Monday afternoon in the Oval Office, calls for reducing the number of childhood vaccines recommended by the federal government from 17 to 11.
The order tries to accomplish similar goals that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention enacted in January, a move which was later blocked by a judge.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long questioned the safety and effectiveness of many childhood vaccines. Monday’s order is also likely to be challenged in court.
From MMR to separate shots?
The order also calls for breaking up the shot known as the MMR, which is now given as a single vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella. The order advises giving it as separate shots over the course of several visits to the doctor.
Trump said “vats” of vaccines are pumped into children’s bodies.
“We’re doing 20 percent of that at each visit,” he said. “We’ll let time elapse between each visit so the body can handle the massive amount of fluid being pumped in.”
The vaccines are not currently available that way in this country and it could take years for them to become available that way, public health experts say. Giving multiple vaccines at one time to children cuts down on the number of doctor’s visits parents have to make in the busy early years of childhood.
Against “mandates”
The order also argues against requiring certain shots be given before for school attendance. It directs the Justice Department to pressure states to reduce the number of vaccines required for school.
The moves will likely be challenged in court, as previous similar attempts to change the childhood vaccination schedule have been.
At the signing ceremony, the president talked about vaccines needing to be studied in light of rising autism rates, a thoroughly researched and debunked theory.
Anti-vaccine advocates celebrated the order.
“I’m very happy with the change,” said Brian Hooker, chief scientific officer at Children’s Health Defense, a group Robert F. Kennedy Jr. worked with in the past. “We need to leave no stone unturned. Our children deserve nothing less.”
But mainstream health leaders denounced the order, saying the effectiveness and safety of vaccines has been proven beyond question.
Dr. Andrew Racine, the president the American Academy of Pediatrics, said children’s doctors will be braced for questions from parents, who will want to know has anything changed in the science. “And the answer to that is no. The science of vaccines and their efficacy has not changed,” Racine says.
Dr. Aaron Milstone, also working with the American Academy of Pediatrics, emphasized that the infections vaccines have largely vanquished can be deadly.
“Why would we not give children a vaccine that is safe that prevents death?” Milstone said. “We had two healthy children die in the United States in the last year from measles virus. So we’re suggesting that you continue to give children a vaccine that has decades of safety data.”