In brief
On Aug. 10 2026, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would trim the number of vaccines children receive and split the MMR series into separate visits. Trump argued that past mandates were excessive and tied high autism rates to vaccines, despite no scientific evidence linking them. The policy cites 11 core vaccines, including measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, HI type B, pneumococcal, HPV and varicella, but the federal government lacks authority to enforce it—school‑level rules remain controlled by states. Public health experts warn that such a move endangers herd immunity and could lead to outbreaks of vaccine‑preventable diseases.
On Aug. 10, 2026, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would reduce the number of childhood vaccines required and recommend that the Mumps, Measles, and Rubella (MMR) shots be split into separate visits.
“Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “In those times, people were much healthier and of course the high rates of autism now observed did not exist.”
The administration has long pushed a discredited link between MMR and autism, yet multiple studies find no evidence of a connection.
Because the federal government lacks authority to impose the new recommendations, school‑attendance vaccine mandates continue to be set by state law.
Trump pledged that his plan would “recognise gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations for only 11 core vaccinations against the most serious and dangerous diseases.” The 11 vaccines include measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus and varicella (chickenpox).
“We’re reducing them,” Trump added. “It’s not only that you’re giving fewer vaccines, or jabs, as they say, but you’re doing them in a series of visits to the doctor.”
