{"id":113332,"date":"2026-01-06T23:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/113332\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T23:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:06:12","slug":"trump-sows-confusion-on-number-of-childhood-vaccinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/113332\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump sows confusion on number of childhood vaccinations"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump spread some confusion about\u00a0childhood vaccinations<\/a>\u00a0in social media posts about changes to U.S. vaccine recommendations.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s administration on Monday took the\u00a0unprecedented step<\/a>\u00a0of cutting the number of vaccines the government has long routinely recommended for all children. On that list are vaccines against 11 diseases. Additional vaccines that were once broadly recommended now are separately categorized for at-risk children or as available through \u201cshared decision-making\u201d with their doctor.<\/p>\n

Leading medical groups are sticking with prior vaccine recommendations, saying there\u2019s no new science to warrant a change \u2014 and they worry the conflicting advice will leave more children vulnerable to preventable illness or death.<\/p>\n

On social media, Trump wrote that \u201cAmerica will no longer require 72 \u2018jabs\u2019\u201d for children, and shared a misleading graphic comparing the U.S. to a \u201cEuropean country\u201d that administered 11 \u201cinjections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a closer look at the facts.<\/p>\n

CLAIM: In a social media post about changes to federal childhood vaccination recommendations, Trump shared a misleading graphic about vaccinations abroad and misstated vaccine requirements in the U.S.<\/p>\n

THE FACTS: A year ago, the government\u2019s childhood vaccination schedule recommended routine protection against 18 diseases. Doses were spread across different ages, based on carefully vetted scientific research about disease risk and vaccine protection.<\/p>\n

How many separate injections that added up to between birth and age 18 varied. It depended on things like the brand used, the availability of combination shots and the child\u2019s starting age. But unless you counted\u00a0once-a-year flu<\/a>\u00a0vaccines (which some kids can get as a nasal spray) or COVID-19 shots, the number of injections was closer to three dozen.<\/p>\n

That would drop to about 23 injections if children received only the recommended-for-all vaccinations on the administration\u2019s new schedule. They include vaccines against diseases such as measles, whooping cough, polio, chickenpox and HPV, or the human papilloma virus.<\/p>\n

Contrary to Trump\u2019s claim, 72 injections were never \u201crequired,\u201d as families could opt out. States do require children to get certain vaccines before enrolling in school. But the state lists\u2019 of school shots were narrower than the prior U.S. vaccine schedule, and many states offer different types of exemptions.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n

Find AP Fact Checks here:\u00a0https:\/\/apnews.com\/APFactCheck<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump spread some confusion about\u00a0childhood vaccinations\u00a0in social media posts about changes to U.S. vaccine recommendations. Trump\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[50081,3927,168,170,169,50082],"class_list":{"0":"post-113332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lubbock","8":"tag-childhood-vaccinations","9":"tag-fact-check","10":"tag-lubbock","11":"tag-lubbock-headlines","12":"tag-lubbock-news","13":"tag-vaccinations-confusion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}