Trump pushes for fewer and separate childhood vaccinations

Washington – 13 August 2026: US President Donald Trump has required the federal government, through an order signed on 10 August, to further restructure childhood vaccination recommendations. Vaccinations are to be distributed more widely across separate medical appointments. The document also calls for the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to be replaced in future by three individual preparations. Trump is thus continuing the rollback of the nationwide recommendation schedule already underway.

According to the White House, vaccinations against eleven diseases are to be generally recommended for children in the future; previously, this category covered 18 diseases. The change initially affects federal recommendations, not directly the school requirements of individual states. Under the US division of powers, these states remain responsible for vaccination requirements at public schools.

The federal government can, however, influence the standards followed by federal agencies, funding programmes and public information services. The order does not prohibit parents from having their children vaccinated against additional diseases. Doctors may continue to offer approved preparations where medically indicated. How easily families can access them also depends on medical provision, insurance programmes and the rules of the respective state.

Trump again justified the move with claims of a connection between vaccinations and autism. There is no scientific evidence for this. An advisory panel of the World Health Organization reviewed a total of 31 studies published between 2010 and 2025 at the end of 2025 and reaffirmed that there is no evidence of a causal link between vaccines and autism spectrum disorders.

The planned splitting of the MMR vaccine also runs counter to the established expert position. According to the WHO, there is no evidence that individual vaccines offer an advantage over the combined preparation. If several appointments are needed, experts believe the risk instead increases that children will miss individual vaccinations and remain temporarily or permanently incompletely protected against preventable infectious diseases.

The order assigns the Department of Health and an interdepartmental working group the task of presenting further plans within 90 days. However, the scope for action is disputed: a federal court had blocked earlier government interventions in the Department of Health’s vaccination schedule. The new directive also does not replace government vaccine approval procedures.

The conflict is intensifying ahead of the start of the new school year. Vaccination rates have fallen in parts of the United States, while measles cases are rising again. Paediatricians warn of additional uncertainty among parents. Trump contrasts the previous medical standard with his guiding principle of expanded parental freedom of choice; his administration has so far not presented a scientifically robust justification for moving away from the combined MMR vaccine.