Trump signs order calling for spacing out childhood vaccines, against
medical groups' guidance
[August 11, 2026]
By ALI SWENSON and COLLIN BINKLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive
order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations that
promote his long-held but discredited theory that childhood shots should
be spaced out into separate medical visits.
The order advocates separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)
vaccine into three different single-disease shots and administering all
childhood immunizations at separate appointments whenever possible. It
also directs the nation's health department to improve research on
vaccines, which are already extensively studied, and present a plan to
offer separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines for children, since
that is not currently an option in the United States.
The renewed focus on vaccines marks a departure from the Trump
administration’s recent efforts to emphasize less controversial health
policies related to healthy eating, drug price negotiations and medical
fraud crackdowns ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Public health experts have raised concerns that spacing out shots as
Trump suggests can lead to an increased risk that children become
infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another
visit. Childhood vaccines — and how and when to give them in combination
— go through rigorous studies, and safety tracking continues for years
as the shots are used.
Trump called the announcement a “major victory for parents rights,
religious and constitutional rights, and for the gold standard science.”
Speaking about the order at the Oval Office on Monday, Trump repeatedly
suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising
rates of autism spectrum disorder, even as scientific consensus and
decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link. The order
also includes several changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that his
health department has already attempted, but that have been blocked by a
federal judge. A White House official who insisted on anonymity to brief
reporters said Trump was within his right to provide his own
recommendation through the executive order and said the lawsuit blocking
the health department's schedule was a separate issue.
Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said
the announcement spreads uncertainty, fear and confusion where “there
doesn't need to be any of that.” He disputed Trump's recommendations and
said previous ones should stand.
“Science about vaccines and their efficacy has not changed,” he said.
“The distribution of viruses and other pathogens in our environment has
not changed. Children in this country have not changed in the last 48
hours."
Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Republican chair of the Senate health committee,
slammed the executive order in a social media post, saying vaccines are
safe and do not cause autism.
“I'm a doctor. This executive order is wrong,” the Louisiana senator
wrote. “The President does not have the expertise to make these
changes.”
Who is in charge of vaccine policy?
Even as the order calls for revised vaccine recommendations, states, not
the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for
schoolchildren. The order advises states with school vaccine mandates to
consider updating their laws to reflect the administration's preferred
schedule, according to a White House fact sheet.
Last December, Trump ordered the Department of Health and Human Services
to review how peer nations approach vaccine recommendations and consider
revising U.S. guidance accordingly. The department responded by cutting
the number of vaccines it recommends for every child, a move that has
since been blocked in court.
Changes to federal childhood vaccine recommendations customarily require
approval from the director of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. The newly Senate-confirmed CDC director, Dr. Erica Schwartz,
oversaw policies promoting vaccination of service members while in a
leadership position at the U.S. Coast Guard.
However, public health law expert Lawrence Gostin at Georgetown
University said the Supreme Court's interpretation of Trump's power may
allow him to supersede Schwartz if she does not agree to new
recommendations.
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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks
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)
 “This is clearly the first test for
Dr. Erica Schwartz,” Gostin said in an email. “The President is
placing her in an untenable position.”
Asked on a call with reporters why the president was advocating
splitting MMR into three single-disease vaccines, the White House
official did not provide any studies supporting the decision. They
said that was Trump's long-held view and that some countries provide
individual measles vaccines in certain circumstances.
Kush Desai, a Trump spokesperson, told The Associated Press that the
president is “one of countless parents who have voiced questions and
concerns about the combined MMR vaccine" and said the plan to
develop single-disease vaccines would “give parents more options on
timing and frequency for their children,” ultimately increasing
vaccine uptake.
Studies of babies and toddlers in the U.S. have shown that the use
of combination shots for childhood vaccines, rather than single
ones, increased the likelihood of completing all recommended
vaccinations by the age of 2.
Announcement follows other Trump administration vaccine actions
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist
before he entered politics, set out to overhaul immunization
guidance at DHS in the first year of Trump’s term. He fired an
entire 17-member vaccine advisory committee, installing replacements
who made far more restrictive recommendations that have since been
halted by a federal judge. He also personally directed the CDC to
abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, without
supplying any new evidence to support the change.
Throughout his second term, Trump has been fixated on connecting
autism to vaccines. He has recently ramped up pressure on Kennedy to
identify the cause of autism, something Kennedy had pledged to do
with new research unveiled last year. Trump publicly prodded the
health secretary for an update on autism research in a Cabinet
meeting last month.
“How are you doing on the autism research?” Trump asked.
“We will have an answer for you,” Kennedy said.
Scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded
there is no link between childhood vaccines and autism. Racine
reiterated that point on Monday, noting that the potential link had
been studied in “over 40 methodologically well-designed studies in
over seven countries involving over 5 million children.”
“I'm not sure that there is anything that has been as thoroughly
looked at as this question," he said. “And the answer is
unequivocally no."
In the Oval Office, Kennedy repeated his assertion that he believes
an unknown environmental factor is to blame for rising autism
diagnoses and said that his department will deliver research
findings “as soon as they are ready.”
Monday's order comes as students are returning to classrooms around
the country and the nation contends with a measles outbreak that
experts say could result in the U.S. losing its measles elimination
status.
Doctors have raised concerns that Trump's falsehoods on vaccines
could stoke vaccine hesitancy. Federal data shows U.S. kindergarten
vaccination rates have been dropping, with the share of children
with exemptions rising to an all-time high in the 2024-25 school
year.
___
Associated Press writers Laura Ungar and Mike Stobbe contributed to
this report. Swenson reported from New York.
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