President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Monday aimed at reshaping the federal government’s approach toward childhood vaccines, according to a draft of the document obtained by CNN.
The sweeping order proposes reducing the total number of immunizations recommended for children in their earliest years and dividing the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule into three categories.
It also advises that the mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) vaccine be separated into three individual shots, against broad scientific consensus but in keeping with Trump’s insistence in recent months that the widely administered shot be altered.
“The MMR, I think, should be taken separately. This is based on what I feel,” Trump said last fall.
Under the draft order, the administration’s new policy would state that all children will be recommended to receive vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Hib, pneumococcal disease, HPV and varicella, or chicken pox.
