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Aug. 11, 2026 ~ WJR’s Marie Osborne breaks down President Donald Trump’s executive order that aims to change vaccine recommendations for children.
WASHINGTON D.C. ~ On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that calls for changes to federal recommendations on childhood vaccinations, drawing rebukes from health experts.
Trump, joined by Health Secretary and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., signed the order in the Oval Office, which aims to separate the joint measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three individual shots. The order also seeks to recommend that all vaccines be spaced out at separate medical appointments and that the number of recommended diseases children be vaccinated for be lowered from 18 to 11. Under these new recommendations, six shots would be set at a “shared clinical decision-making” standard, these being hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rotavirus, bacterial meningitis, influenza and Covid-19.
“This announcement is a major victory for parents’ rights, religious and constitutional rights,” Trump said during the signing.
Health experts raised concerns over splitting the MMR vaccine, stating that the vaccine is well researched and that spacing out the shots will make it harder for parents to schedule additional appointments, causing missed or delayed immunizations. Individual vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella have not been available in the United States since they were phased out of production in 2009, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Trump also referenced the long-debunked claim that childhood vaccines are linked to autism. The claim originated in a paper written by a since-discredited doctor that claimed an autism link with the MMR vaccine, but was later retracted by The Lancet in 2010 over faulty practices in the study. Multiple studies since have failed to find a link between vaccines and autism.
The executive order reflects a similar goal attempted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this year, though that was blocked by a federal judge.
