The World Health Organization has reaffirmed the scientific integrity of childhood immunisation schedules as the US government considers reducing vaccine recommendations, prompting concern among health experts about potential health risks.
The World Health Organization has defended the scientific basis of childhood vaccination schedules after Donald Trump signed an executive order aiming to reduce the number of vaccines recommended for children in the United States, according to Al Arabiya and Axios.
On Tuesday, the UN health agency backed the evidence used to design immunisation programmes, pushing back against the White House move, which Trump signed on Monday. The order seeks to cut the number of vaccines on the childhood schedule to 11 and argues that US children should receive what Trump described as a “gold standard” of protection while bringing American guidance closer to other developed countries.
The directive also calls for each vaccine to be given in a separate visit and for the measles, mumps and rubella shot to be split into three injections, Axios reported. However, the combined MMR vaccine is the one currently available to children in the United States, making the proposal difficult to carry out in practice without changing the market for paediatric immunisations.
Public health experts have said that comparisons with other wealthy countries can be misleading because vaccination policies are shaped by different disease patterns, health systems and regulatory approaches. Fact-checkers and medical groups have also rejected the claim that the current US childhood schedule is unusually heavy or harmful, saying there is no scientific evidence that routine vaccines are linked to autism.
The order also strengthens a long-running aim of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, who has repeatedly questioned vaccine safety despite the absence of evidence supporting a link between vaccines and autism. Critics say the latest move could make vaccination harder, more expensive and more time-consuming, while increasing the risk of outbreaks of preventable diseases.
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