President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to drastically change the childhood vaccine schedule by recommending shots be administered in separate visits to the doctor’s office.
The executive order acts on Trump’s long-held belief that splitting up routine childhood vaccinations across multiple visits lessens the risk of acquiring autism. Scientists have found no credible risk between vaccinations and autism.
“I’ve seen vaccinations the size of a bottle of soda poured into a little child’s body. And bad things happen,” Trump said at the Oval Office signing on Monday, where he thanked Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and “the MAHA moms.”
Trump said that, for instance, a 1-year-old would go in for five separate visits to get his or her routine 1-year vaccinations rather than get them all on the same day as is practice now.
The order instructs agencies to take actions to advance the White House’s recommendations.
