Overview
- On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order directing HHS to cut the federal routine childhood vaccine list and to pursue splitting the combined MMR shot into separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines.
- Leading medical groups and vaccine experts quickly condemned the move as unsupported by evidence and warned that the president’s repeated suggestion of a vaccine‑autism link contradicts decades of research.
- Multiple states, including California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Maine, said they will not follow the new federal guidance and will keep using existing AAP or CDC‑based recommendations for school requirements.
- Public‑health and industry officials note there are no U.S.‑licensed single measles, mumps or rubella vaccines, so unbundling MMR would require new clinical trials, FDA approvals and new manufacturing that experts say would likely take years and large investment.
- Critics say the order could erode public trust and raise the chance of missed or delayed shots at a time when the U.S. has recorded 2,465 confirmed measles cases so far this year and state rules, not the federal order, determine school vaccine requirements.