The American Academy of Paediatrics has condemned US President Donald Trump’s newly signed executive order recommending that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine be split across three separate visits for children, warning the directive threatens child health just as US measles cases hit their highest level in 35 years.
Trump signed the order on Monday, titled the “Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations,” which divides vaccines into three categories: those recommended for all children, those recommended only for children at high risk of infection, and those recommended after consultation with a physician, according to The Hill.
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American Academy of Paediatrics president Dr Andrew Racine issued an unusually blunt rebuke of the administration’s move, framing it as a direct threat to public health at a precarious moment. “As measles cases reach a 35-year high in the US and with cold and flu season quickly approaching, today’s executive order on vaccines is not only disheartening but dangerous,” Racine said in a statement carried by The Hill, adding, “Instead of ensuring every family can access life-saving vaccines for measles, influenza, RSV and more, federal leaders are once again spreading misleading claims.”
The organisation, which represents roughly 67,000 US paediatricians, urged parents to disregard the order entirely in favour of guidance from their own child’s doctor. “Parents should listen to their child’s paediatrician about vaccines rather than listening to an inaccurate executive order. This is so wrong,” the group said, according to CBS News.
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Although the order itself makes no mention of autism, Trump repeatedly invoked the subject when unveiling it in the Oval Office. “Today, we’re proud to officially announce the United States of America’s Gold Standard Childhood Vaccination Recommendations and that has to do with many subjects, but including autism in particular,” Trump said, according to CBS News. Decades of scientific research have found no link between vaccines and autism, a conclusion the American Academy of Paediatrics and other major medical bodies have repeatedly reaffirmed.
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The order also drew criticism from within Trump’s own party. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician, posted a sharply worded rebuke on social media platform X, writing, “I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism,” according to CBS News.
Cassidy added that splitting combined vaccines into separate shots would mean children needing more injections rather than fewer to achieve the same protection, warning it could increase vaccine hesitancy rather than address it.
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Monday’s order is the latest flashpoint in an escalating standoff between the American Academy of Paediatrics and the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, led by Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. The group published its own 2026 childhood immunisation schedule earlier this year, deliberately diverging from revised federal guidance that had dropped routine recommendations for vaccines against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal disease, rotavirus, influenza and RSV, and it is currently suing the administration over changes made to the federal vaccine schedule by Kennedy’s restructured Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
The rift deepened further in December when HHS terminated nearly $12 million in federal grants to the AAP, a move a federal judge later found was likely made with a “retaliatory motive,” ordering the funding restored while the underlying legal challenge continues.
Monday’s executive order also directs the Department of Health and Human Services to complete a broader reassessment of vaccine sequencing and timing within 90 days, meaning further changes to the federal childhood immunisation schedule are expected in the coming months, even as legal challenges to the administration’s earlier revisions remain unresolved in court.
