This article originally appeared onThe Defenderand was republished with permission.
Guest post byMichael Nevradakis, Ph.D.
Anexecutive orderPresident Donald Trump signed late last Friday has reignited the national debate on the childhood immunization schedule.
The order directs public health agencies to align the schedule with afederal assessmentpublished in January that calls for fewer recommended childhood vaccines and reflects the “scientific evidence and best practices from peer, developed countries while preserving access to vaccines currently available to Americans.”
“The scientific assessment found that the United States currently recommends more childhood vaccines than any peer nation, including more than twice as many vaccine doses as some European nations, and identified a set of consensus vaccines that are consistently recommended in all peer countries.”
In a Substack post,Sayer Ji, chairman of theGlobal Wellness Forumand founder ofGreenMedInfo, wrote, “After decades in which the schedule only ratcheted in one direction — more products, more doses, earlier and earlier — this is a top-down instruction to reconsider that trajectory.”
The executive order comes amid recent suggestions that the Trump administration has strategically pivoted away from vaccine policy in the lead-up to this year’s midterm elections.
But for Michael Kane, director of advocacy forChildren’s Health Defense(CHD), the order “is a sign that examining the childhood vaccination schedule is a true priority.”
“The U.S. gives more vaccines to children before the age of 2 than nearly all other developed peer nations. In addition, we have the highest levels ofchronic illnessin children in the developed world. Lowering the number of recommended vaccines would allow us to see what role vaccination plays in the chronic illness epidemic we have in our nation,” Kane said.
Medical researcher Neil Z. Miller, who in 2023 co-authored a study finding a positive statistical correlation betweeninfant mortality rates and the number of vaccine dosesreceived by babies, agreed. “Many developed countries recommend a smaller set of vaccines universally while reserving others for specific risk groups. … The executive order establishes a clearer distinction between ‘core’ and ‘optional’ vaccines.”
Source: The Vigilant Fox
