US President Donald Trump has signed an order to reduce the number of vaccines included in the childhood vaccination schedule, writes the BBC.
Signing the order, Trump said that several decades ago, children received only a fraction of the vaccines offered today, but that people were healthier back then, and there were not so many people with autism spectrum disorders. The US president has long expressed doubts about the safety of the MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella) vaccine, even despite the fact that scientific studies have never been able to prove a link between the vaccine and autism spectrum disorders.
The order recommends reducing the number of vaccines from the 18 currently recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to 11. Trump’s order can serve as a guideline, but not a mandatory rule, because the number of vaccines required to attend school is determined by each individual state, not the federal government.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said that his administration recognizes only 11 core vaccines as the “gold standard” against the most serious and severe diseases. Under the order, all children must receive vaccines against mumps, measles, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcus, human papillomavirus and chickenpox.
Trump said that
both the number of vaccines is being reduced and they are being spread out over a longer period of time.
He also added that the MMR vaccine can be “quite deadly” if given all at once. When a reporter asked about evidence that the MMR vaccine was “deadly,” Trump said he had heard some people say so.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is a small chance that the MMR vaccine can cause febrile seizures in young children. Therefore, people with health problems, including severe allergies or weakened immune systems, should consult a doctor before getting vaccinated. The CDC said that most people do not have any problems with the MMR vaccine, and that getting mumps, measles or rubella is much more dangerous. There is also no scientific evidence that the MMR vaccine should be divided into three separate parts.
US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr. said the changes were intended to give parents a choice, not to ban vaccines.
The Trump administration has said that the order means fewer doses of the vaccine. The current vaccination schedule includes 72 doses, including annual vaccines.
AAP President Dr. Andrew Racine said Trump’s order is dangerous and not based on scientific evidence, and delaying or splitting vaccinations into multiple doses could be risky.
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, whose vote was crucial in Kennedy’s nomination as health secretary, also criticized Trump’s order on Monday, calling it flawed. He said the president lacks the authority to make such a decision. Cassidy added that vaccines are safe and do not cause autism spectrum disorders.
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