US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that includes new recommendations for childhood vaccination, limiting the recommended vaccines to 11. It also calls for the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine to be split up and given in three separate doctor visits .
At the signing in the Oval Office, the US president presented the text as the country’s “gold standard” for childhood vaccination, recognizing recommendations only “against the most serious and dangerous diseases” . He argued that the US recommends more childhood vaccines than other countries, “even twice as many doses as some countries in Europe”, and that the change brings the country into line with other developed nations. The ceremony was attended by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , a long-time vaccine critic, and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya.
According to the White House briefing note, the order recommends immunization against 11 diseases , down from 18 that were included in the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines in 2024. It also introduces a tiered approach : some vaccines are recommended for all children, while others — such as those for RSV and hepatitis A and B — are only recommended for high-risk children. It also stops recommending that all minors be vaccinated against COVID-19 .
In the MMR section, the text states that the combined vaccine should be administered in three separate monovalent doses , when such formulations become available domestically, and that to the extent possible, all childhood vaccinations should be given at separate medical visits . Experts point out that monovalent vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella are not currently available in the United States , making the recommendation impractical at this time.
The decree also contains a legal enforcement component, as it instructs the Department of Justice to investigate and take legal action against states that, according to the government, violate exemptions from mandatory vaccinations for religious or medical reasons, as well as parental authority and accommodations for people with disabilities.
During his campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly linked vaccines to autism , claiming that increasing childhood doses had led to an increase in diagnoses. Decades of scientific data have not proven any such link. The original hypothesis stemmed from a 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield, which was retracted as fraudulent , and its author lost his license to practice after financial interests in lawsuits against manufacturers and a patent for a monovalent measles vaccine were revealed.
The move is part of a broader effort to overhaul the vaccination program. In January, the CDC had already recommended reducing the number of vaccines to 11; the American Academy of Pediatrics explicitly disagreed, maintaining the recommendation for 18. In March, a federal judge blocked the changes, ruling that the agency violated due process and undermined the integrity of its actions. Critics say the new order circumvents that very transparent process , and it is expected to be challenged in court.
Public health experts point out that the immunization schedule is based on decades of data showing that vaccines protect against serious and life-threatening diseases, warning that reducing recommendations will leave more children vulnerable to preventable diseases . Pediatric infectious disease specialists emphasize that the vaccination schedule is designed so that each dose is given at the age of maximum immunogenicity and that fragmentation into multiple visits creates obstacles : parents who don’t return, appointments that are missed, vaccination coverage drops .
In practice, parents are not expected to see an immediate change in access to vaccines. The order makes recommendations, not eliminates products, and its validity will be determined by the courts as well as the attitudes of states, health insurance companies, and pediatricians themselves — many of whom have already said they will continue to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidelines.
