US President Donald Trump signs an executive order calling for more research and flexibility on vaccines, alongside US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (R) and Jayme Leagh Franklin (L), founder of The Conservateur, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 10, 2026. Trump signed an executive order Monday pushing for a rethink of school vaccine mandates and repeating calls for the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to be separated into three individual shots. Curbing vaccines has been a key priority for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who founded an anti-vaccine nonprofit and has long promoted a disproven link between immunization and autism. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on vaccines August 10th that establishes a new federal framework on vaccines. The administration now identifies only 11 diseases for children to be administered routine vaccination; including but not limited to measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis and chickenpox. In addition, the order calls for the combined MMR vaccine to eventually be offered as three separate vaccines administered at separate doctor visits. According to the White House, this offers parents greater flexibility.
