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Trump signs order to revise childhood vaccine schedule into separate visits
The order backs splitting MMR into separate measles, mumps, and rubella shots and directs the health department to develop a plan for separate options for children.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations that, according to the Associated Press, promote his long-held view that vaccines should be spaced out into separate medical visits. The order supports separating the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine into three single-disease shots and administering childhood immunizations at separate appointments whenever possible.
The order also instructs the US health department to improve research on vaccines and to present a plan to offer separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines for children, a separate option that is not currently available in the United States, the Associated Press said.
Public health experts raised concerns that spacing out shots in the manner Trump suggests could increase the risk that children become infected with vaccine-preventable diseases before they return for additional visits. The Associated Press noted that childhood vaccines and their combined schedules undergo rigorous studies, and safety monitoring continues for years as the shots are used.
The renewed focus on vaccines marks a shift from the Trump administration’s more recent emphasis on other health-related initiatives ahead of November’s midterm elections, including efforts on healthy eating, drug price negotiations and medical fraud crackdowns, the Associated Press reported.