Trump Order Targets Childhood Vaccine Schedules

President Donald Trump has signed an order on childhood vaccines that calls for fewer shots for children and recommends breaking the mumps, measles and rubella, or MMR, vaccine into three separate injections.

The order reflects a long-running effort by the Trump administration to question the scope and timing of childhood immunizations, a subject that has become increasingly politicized in the United States. By calling for fewer vaccines, the administration is inserting itself into a public health system that has, for decades, relied on childhood vaccination schedules to prevent the spread of serious infectious diseases.

Trump said on Monday that children once received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today and argued that people were healthier then, adding that autism rates were not as high in that period. His remarks echoed a message his administration has repeatedly advanced: that vaccines may be connected to autism, a claim that has been widely rejected by medical experts and major scientific research.

The MMR vaccine has been a central focus of that debate because it protects children against three diseases in a single dose that has become a routine part of pediatric care. The vaccine is widely used because measles, mumps and rubella can each cause significant illness and complications, and combining them into one shot has been part of modern vaccination practice for years. Public health authorities generally view combination vaccines as a way to simplify immunization schedules while maintaining protection against multiple infections.

That approach has come under renewed scrutiny from Trump and allies who have argued for separating the shots. But multiple studies have found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism, and that conclusion has been repeatedly reaffirmed by health researchers. Despite that evidence, the administration has continued to revisit the issue, keeping alive a debate that scientists say was settled long ago.