Overview
- President Trump signed the executive order on Monday to cut the set of routinely recommended childhood vaccines from 18 to 11 and to promote spacing shots and separate MMR doses when available.
- The order tells HHS to produce proposed schedule changes within 90 days and asks the Justice Department to pursue legal avenues intended to pressure states and challenge existing mandates.
- Single‑disease measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are not currently sold in the United States so splitting the MMR shot would require manufacturers, FDA review and new supplies before it could be implemented.
- Major medical groups and public health experts have condemned the plan, saying decades of research show no link between vaccines and autism and warning that spacing or separating doses raises the risk of missed shots and more disease during a measles outbreak.
- The move revives an earlier HHS effort that was blocked by a federal judge and sets up further legal and political battles over federal authority, state school requirements and the practical effect on immunization rates.