President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to cut the recommended childhood immunisation schedule from 18 to 11 vaccines, citing autism risk reduction as a key goal, sparking debate on vaccine safety and international best practices.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that would shrink the routine childhood immunisation schedule in the United States from 18 recommended diseases to 11, a move he said was meant to reduce autism risk. The White House described the order as part of a wider effort to align US vaccine policy with what it called best practice in other advanced countries.
At the signing ceremony in the Oval Office, Trump repeated his long-running claim that rising vaccination levels have helped drive higher autism diagnoses among children. He said the change could have “colossal” results, even as the World Health Organization has said there is no causal link between vaccines and autism after reviewing evidence from 2010 to 2025.
Under the order, vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcal disease, chickenpox and human papillomavirus would remain on the list recommended for all children. Vaccines for hepatitis B, hepatitis A, rotavirus, seasonal flu, COVID-19, meningococcal disease and respiratory syncytial virus would move into a category for individual discussion between parents and doctors.
The White House said in May that Trump had already signed an order directing the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and its immunisation advisers to review childhood vaccine guidance and update the schedule. He has also said the Food and Drug Administration will warn doctors about acetaminophen use in pregnancy, linking the painkiller to autism despite medical consensus that such a connection has not been established.
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