The president signed a new executive order based on the myth that vaccines cause autism

Just a few weeks after it was reported that Donald Trump was unsatisfied with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s progress codifying his vaccine conspiracies into national health policy, the president signed an executive order radically remaking the nation’s childhood immunization schedule. 

Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday, Trump told reporters he was “proud to officially announce the United States of America’s gold standard childhood vaccination recommendations.”

“That has to do with many subjects including autism in particular,” he added.

Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has complained to Kennedy and others that the health secretary had not acted aggressively enough to establish a link between childhood vaccinations and autism. Researchers, medical experts, and the greater scientific community have concluded that vaccines do not cause autism, and no reputable evidence to the contrary exists.

It seems that Trump may have lit a fire under Kennedy’s ass, though — or that Kennedy’s inaction prompted Trump to take matters into his own hands. 

“Decades ago children received only a small fraction of the vaccines,” Trump claimed. “People were much healthier and, of course, the high rates of autism now observed did not exist. So there’s a reason for such epidemic rates of autism.” 

The order would eliminate several vaccines from the recommendations for children, not because there’s any evidence they are harmful but because — according to the White House — not enough “peer” countries with health systems comparable to the United States recommend them. The so-called “Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations” order downgrades vaccines for diseases like RSV, hepatitis, and meningococcus to only be recommended for “certain high-risk groups or populations.” Immunizations against the flu and Covid-19 are no longer recommended, but listed under a category of immunization subject to “shared clinical decision-making.” 

Trump is also demanding that the manner in which the combined measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine — one of the most effective and safe vaccinations against three potentially deadly childhood diseases — be completely overhauled. The order calls for the MMR vaccine to “be administered in three separate single-disease shots once such products are domestically available and that, to the maximum extent feasible, all childhood immunizations should be administered at separate medical visits.” 

In classic Trump fashion, his delivery of this policy came with a wild anecdote in which he said that children’s vaccines often “look like the size of a bottle of soda.” 

Separate visits for every shot means more time off work for parents, child care arrangements, copays and bills, but these are the kind of knock-on effects for American families that Trump’s policies so often ignore. But outside of the logistical and economic impact, there are some signs that Trump’s political capital may be at stake in this decision. 

Shortly after the order, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, a licensed medical doctor, posted that the president’s executive order was “so wrong,” adding that “The President does not have the expertise to make these changes.”

“Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe,” Cassidy continued. “Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism.”

It should be noted that Cassidy voted to confirm Kennedy as HHS secretary last year, despite Kennedy’s history of pushing vaccine conspiracy theories. Kennedy, who was in the room with Trump when he signed the order, later praised Trump for standing for “gold-standard science.”

The dubious and scientifically unfounded link between autism and vaccines is a relatively new priority of Trump’s, and one that he appears to have adopted largely because of the influence of RFK Jr.’s Make America Health Again movement.

As is often the case, when fringe groups like MAHA get what they want, society as a whole suffers. It’s a hard shot to take.