Trump signs order calling for spacing out of childhood jabs
Updated . First published
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for a shake-up of childhood immunisation guidelines that back his controversial theories that jabs for children should be spaced out into separate medical visits.
The order calls for separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different shots administered in separate visits, and directs the US health department to improve vaccine research, says a White House fact sheet.
President Donald Trump, left, shakes the hand of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a meeting to sign an executive order about vaccines, on Monday, August 10, in the Oval Office of the White House AP
President Donald Trump holds an executive order for a shakeup of childhood immunisations. AP
Separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines for children are not currently available in the United States.
During the signing of the order in the Oval Office, Trump described the move as “another historic step to make America healthy again”.
The president also suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder, despite scientific consensus and decades of studies finding there is no connection.
The renewed focus on vaccines marks a departure from his administration’s recent efforts to emphasise less controversial health policies ahead of November’s midterm elections, reports The Associated Press.
Public health experts have raised concerns that spacing out shots as Trump suggests can lead to an increased risk that children become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit.
American doctors and scientists insist current childhood immunisation schedules are safe and effective. AP
Childhood vaccines - and how and when to give them in combination - go through rigorous studies, and safety tracking continues for years as the shots are used.
Trump called the announcement a “major victory for parents rights, religious and constitutional rights, and for the gold standard science.”
But Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the announcement spreads uncertainty, fear and confusion where “there doesn’t need to be any of that.”
He disputed the Trump administration’s recommendations and said previous ones should stand.
“Science about vaccines and their efficacy has not changed,” he said.
US Senator Bill Cassidy said Donald Trump lacks the expertise to make vaccine changes. AP
“The distribution of viruses and other pathogens in our environment has not changed. Children in this country have not changed in the last 48 hours.”
Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican chair of the Senate health committee, slammed the executive order in a social media post, saying vaccines are safe and do not cause autism.
“I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong,” he wrote. “The President does not have the expertise to make these changes.”
The executive order signed on Monday comes after other vaccine actions by the Trump administration.
US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist before he entered politics, set out to overhaul immunisation guidance at the Department of Health Services in the first year of Trump’s term.
He fired an entire 17-member vaccine advisory committee, installing replacements who made far more restrictive recommendations that have since been halted by a federal judge.
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