Trump Adds Flexibility to Childhood Vaccine Schedule in Attempt to Combat Autism

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday calling for changes to the child vaccine schedule, including splitting up one vaccine into separate shots spaced out over time.

“My administration is recognizing gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations for only 11 core vaccinations against the most serious and dangerous diseases, along with the [measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine], which hopefully will be split up,” Trump said.

“We want it in three separate vaccinations, given at separate times,” he added. “Together, there could be a possibility they’re quite lethal. And separately, it looks like they are not at all lethal, but just very effective.”

The order also directs the attorney general to pursue legal challenges against states that “violate children’s rights to religious or medical vaccination exemptions.”

Trump said he believes these changes will combat the increase in autism in children.

“Every year gets higher, higher, higher—autism—and we think we have a very good recommendation,” he said.

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In other countries, parents vaccinate their children even without government mandates, Trump said.

“It’s up to the parents if they wish, and they will be covered by insurance,” he said. “However, this updated recommendation finally aligns the United States with other advanced and developed nations around the world.”

National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said this updated recommendation will “restore the autonomy of families and parents to make good decisions for their for their kids.”

“It allows and continues to emphasize the importance of science in recommendations about vaccines,” said Bhattacharya, “and fundamentally restores a sort of healthy relationship between public health and parents, more in line with what happens in European countries than in the United States.”

Dr. Heidi Overton, head of the Domestic Policy Council, clarified the difference between Monday’s announcement and other actions on vaccines. The Trump administration previously overhauled the childhood vaccine schedule, but that effort was held up in court, Overton said. She added that the new executive order gives the public access to information the administration says was blocked by the court.

“You are correcting that wrong today,” Overton said, “and saying, ‘I am giving Americans this information directly so that they know what HHS found in the scientific assessment themselves.’”