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Trump signs executive order on vaccine flexibility
President Trump signed an executive order on vaccines. The order calls for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations. The White House says the order will recommend administering each vaccine in its own visit and separating measles, mumps and rubella into 3 different shots.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that called for spacing out childhood vaccines.
Dig deeper:
The order separates the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different shots to be administered at three separate visits.
It also directs the nation’s health department to improve vaccine research.
Trump also said that one-year-olds should have their shots separated into five different visits.
FILE - Health care worker holds up a vaccination syringe. (Photo by Gareth Fuller - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
The other side:
Public health experts have raised concerns that spacing out shots, as Trump suggests, can lead to an increased risk that children become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit.
Childhood vaccines — and how and when to give them in combination — go through rigorous studies, and safety tracking continues for years as the shots are used.
The backstory:
Last December, Trump ordered HHS to review how peer nations approach vaccine recommendations and consider revising U.S. guidance accordingly. The department responded by cutting the number of vaccines it recommends for every child, a move that has since been blocked in court.
In the months leading up to Monday's announcement, Trump’s administration had largely pivoted away from talking about vaccine policy in favor of less polarizing topics like healthy eating and efforts to lower drug prices ahead of November’s elections.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from The Associated Press.