US President Donald Trump signed the executive order on Monday, recommending reducing the number of diseases covered by universal routine childhood vaccination recommendations from 18 to 11.
Decisions as such could lead to immunisation gaps, leaving populations vulnerable to outbreaks and fuel mistrust in vaccines, Marco Cavaleri, head of the European Medicines Agency’s Public Health Threats Department, told Euronews.
Skipping routine childhood vaccinations could be “catastrophic," he said, adding that it risks “the return of diseases that we were able to contain and eliminate from our countries."
Moreover, it could hamper vaccine trust in society. Such decisions, as the one in the US, “unfortunately, could be very detrimental in terms of vaccine confidence,” Cavaleri warned.
Unpacking Trump’s order
