US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Monday that calls for fewer vaccines for children and that advocates for updated vaccination guidelines that support his long-held but debunked belief that childhood vaccinations ought to be administered in separate doctor's appointments.
The order recommends giving all childhood vaccinations at separate visits whenever feasible, which had earlier been blocked by a federal judge, and dividing the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three distinct single-disease injections,
It also directs the country's health department to improve research on vaccines, which are already extensively studied, and presents a plan to offer separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines for children, since that is not currently an option in the United States.
Speaking about the order at the Oval Office on Monday, Trump repeatedly suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder, even as scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link.
Trump called the announcement a “major victory for parents' rights, religious and constitutional rights, and for the gold standard science.”
