Trump Orders Agencies to Cut Childhood Vaccine Recommendations
President Trump issued an executive order on Friday directing federal agencies to align with a January Department of Health and Human Services study that proposes reducing the number of vaccines recommended for American children. The study, initiated by Trump in December, recommends vaccinating all children against only 11 diseases, moving vaccines for flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, certain meningitis strains, and RSV to optional status based on individual risk or doctor recommendation.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, championed the study's recommendations. Kennedy previously fired a 17-member CDC vaccine advisory committee and replaced several members with vaccine skeptics. Last year, he unilaterally eliminated CDC recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines in healthy children and pregnant women without citing new scientific data, a decision that public health experts disputed.
Trump's order directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review the study and implement changes while claiming to "provide maximum flexibility to parents and doctors." The order requires all federal agencies to align their actions, regulations, and funding with the study's narrowed vaccine recommendations, bypassing normal scientific review processes and CDC expertise.
A federal judge in Massachusetts previously blocked the administration's attempt to narrow childhood vaccine recommendations, but the administration is appealing that decision. The order notes that states, not the federal government, set school vaccination requirements, though CDC guidance typically influences state policy. Some states have begun forming alliances to counter the Trump administration's vaccine guidance.
This executive order amplifies Kennedy's broader effort to dismantle federal health institutions and restructure disease prevention guidance, continuing the administration's pattern of politicizing public health agencies and subordinating them to ideological preferences rather than scientific evidence.