Childhood vaccinations are back in the national spotlight after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday changing some of the federal government’s vaccine recommendations, prompting pushback from state and national health officials.
The order recommends only 12 vaccines, including those for chicken pox, tetanus, HPV and polio. It also calls for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to be split into three separate shots given at three separate doctor visits, rather than administered as a single combination vaccine.
“The MMR, we want it in three separate vaccinations, given at separate times,” Trump said. “Together they could possibly, they are quite lethal, and separately it looks like they are not at all lethal but very effective.”
New York Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said the order was not accompanied by new scientific evidence.
“There was no new research or information presented with the executive order,” McDonald said.
McDonald said parents should not expect any changes at their next pediatrician visit.
“There’s nothing that changes in New York state right now,” he said.
He also said the MMR portion of the order may never take effect, since the vaccine is not currently manufactured as three separate components.
“Since the vaccine isn’t manufactured as a separate component, you’re going to need to find some company that’s willing to manufacture the vaccine. Then it has to be approved again,” McDonald said.
That approval process would go through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and could take years, according to McDonald. The combined MMR shot has been in use for 55 years. Children typically receive their first dose between 12 and 15 months old and a second between ages 4 and 6.
Trump also repeated his long-standing claim linking vaccines to autism, a claim McDonald — a pediatrician for more than 36 years — rejected.
“This question has been studied exhaustively,” McDonald said. “But there is no evidence that vaccines cause autism.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics raised a separate concern: a widening gap between federal guidance and what doctors are seeing in practice.
“It’s very confusing now to anybody who looks at this,” said Dr. James Campbell of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Campbell said requiring more doctor visits for a split MMR vaccine could cause some children to miss doses altogether.
“There’s very good data on that, that the more times you have to come back for follow-up vaccinations, and follow-up visits for whatever the medical issue is, the less likely that you’re going to complete the series,” Campbell said.
Health experts advise concerned parents to raise questions directly with their child’s pediatrician.
McDonald noted that vaccine requirements for schools are set by individual states, not the federal government, meaning New York would retain final authority over school vaccination rules regardless of the executive order’s future effect.