President Donald Trump, left, shakes the hand of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a meeting to sign an executive order about vaccines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin)<\/small><\/p>\n
2026-08-12T04:02:32Z<\/p>\n
Doctors say President Donald Trump\u2019s new executive order<\/a><\/span> on vaccines is misguided and likely to stoke fear and confusion among parents at a time when measles is raging<\/a><\/span>, immunization rates are falling and children are heading back to school. <\/p>\n \u201cMany families are finishing up that back-to-school checklist, and among those things is the medical checkup and assuring that their kids have their vaccines,\u201d Michigan pediatrician Dr. Molly O\u2019Shea said. \u201cTo put into question the safety or efficacy of these vaccines right now is really unfortunate and ill-conceived.\u201d <\/p>\n The order, signed Monday, advocates separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different single-disease shots and giving all childhood immunizations at separate appointments when possible. It also includes several changes to the childhood vaccine schedule already attempted by Trump\u2019s health department but blocked by a federal judge. The department is run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who helped lead the anti-vaccine movement for years.<\/p>\n Trump repeatedly suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder, even though decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link<\/a><\/span>. He also strongly suggested that the MMR vaccine could be harmful or even deadly.<\/p>\n Dr. Paul Offit, a Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine researcher and former government adviser, said the recommendations by Trump and Kennedy \u201care just not science based<\/a><\/span>,\u201d and it\u2019s irresponsible to cast doubt on a vaccine that protects against measles when the nation is facing its biggest epidemic in more than 30 years.<\/p>\n \u201cThe harm that it will cause is \u2026 to induce chaos and confusion into the system, so people aren\u2019t sure what they\u2019re supposed to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n At one point before signing his executive order, Trump used the word \u201clethal\u201d when talking about the current MMR vaccine, saying: \u201cTogether there could be a possibility they are quite lethal and separately, it looks like they are not at all lethal but just very effective.\u201d<\/p>\n Doctors strongly rejected this characterization, saying the current combination vaccine has gone through rigorous studies and years of safety tracking \u2014 like other childhood vaccines \u2014 and has been shown to be very safe. The diseases they protect against are the far bigger risk<\/a><\/span>, they said. <\/p>\nTrump\u2019s order evokes fears<\/h2>\n