In issuing an executive order Monday requiring states to review recommendations on childhood vaccines, President Donald Trump and other members of his Administration repeated several false claims about those vaccines, as well as their relationship to autism.
The order recommends dividing the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate vaccines for each disease and administering childhood vaccines at separate appointments whenever possible.
However, many public health experts expressed concern about these recommendations, noting that spacing out vaccinations could increase the risk of children becoming infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another appointment. They noted that childhood vaccines and how they should be administered have been the subject of rigorous studies around the world for decades, and continue to be shown to be safe and effective in protecting children.
In conversation with Noticias Telemundo, Dr. Ilan Shapiro, director of Medical Affairs at AltaMed Health, stated that “it is important to remember that the American Academy of Pediatrics, with the American Academy of Gynecology and more than 50 other medical associations continue to reinforce that the vaccination record (against) 18 diseases is really what we need.”
“Unfortunately (after yesterday’s announcement) they do not give us the information on what they are basing these changes on; what the investigation is. Unfortunately at this moment (…) we all lose and it’s just creating fear”.
He commented that, “for example, the measles and rubella vaccines, which are two, will (now) be six in total for children and on six different occasions. This means that as parents, we will also see barriers to being able to have these vaccines and (…) it will be much more difficult for our families who are working.”
He added that “we are increasing the possibility of measles and (…) and other diseases. In this way, we are going to begin to see an increase in problems, apart from definitely deaths, heart and neurological problems that we had not seen before because we were preventing them through vaccines.”
He explained that the vaccination record is designed taking into account which are the most common diseases according to age. “For example, if children are not having their first-year vaccines, we are opening the door to tetanus, (…) hepatitis, we are opening the door to so many diseases, including pneumonia, that we do not want to have.”
Trump’s misleading statements
In introducing the order, Trump said that “in many cases, we required 72 shots for our beautiful, healthy, adorable, delicate children.”
Actually, that’s misleading. In 2025, the Government’s childhood vaccination schedule recommended routine protection against 18 diseases. The number of separate injections totaling from birth to age 18 varied. It depended on factors such as the brand used, the availability of combination vaccines, and the child’s age of onset. But unless you counted once-a-year flu shots (which some children can get as a nasal spray) or COVID-19 vaccines, the number of shots was closer to three dozen.
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These vaccines have been shown to protect children from preventable and sometimes devastating diseases. Still, vaccines were never “mandatory,” as families could choose not to administer them. States do require children to receive certain vaccines before enrolling in school, but state lists of school vaccines were more limited than the federal vaccination schedule, and many states offer different types of exemptions.
In January, the Trump Administration narrowed national vaccination recommendations to shots against 11 diseases, and additional vaccines are now classified separately for at-risk children or as available through “shared decision-making” with a doctor. This reduces the total number of shots to about 23 if children receive only the vaccines recommended for everyone under the Administration’s new schedule.
The president also stated that “there is the MMR vaccine; we want it to be administered in three separate vaccines at different times. Together, there could be a possibility that they could be quite lethal, and separately, it seems that they are not lethal at all, but just very effective.”
That statement is also false. Doctors say, and years of real-life evidence prove, that the current MMR combination vaccine is safe and effective in protecting children against the disease. Common side effects are mild and include arm pain from the injection, fever, mild rash, and temporary joint pain and stiffness. Doctors note that separate vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella are not available in the United States.
“I am concerned about an unintended consequence of people vaccinating less than recommended for fear that giving a single dose of the MMR vaccine will put their children at risk, when there is no evidence to suggest that is the case,” said Dr. Aaron Milstone, pediatric director of infection prevention at the Johns Hopkins Health System and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “There are many, many, many years of scientific data highlighting the safety of vaccines in children.”
Trump indicated that “large amounts of vaccine, like entire vats of vaccine, are currently being injected into your child’s body.”
That statement is not true either. Dr. Molly O’Shea, a pediatrician in Michigan, said the amounts vary slightly depending on the vaccine, but that doctors give less than 0.5 milliliters per vaccine – usually between 0.1 and 0.3 milliliters per vaccine. For comparison, one teaspoon is equivalent to about 5 milliliters.
“It’s a minuscule amount,” he said. “So there are no vats.”
Trump also said during the signing of the executive order: “I’ve seen evidence of it. Where they have a vaccine that looks like the size of a soda bottle poured into a little child’s body.” A typical plastic soda bottle contains 500 milliliters, or about 2,500 times more than a typical vaccine.
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According to the president, “we have nothing to lose with this. The worst that could happen is that nothing happens. We are not going to lose anything.”
But in reality, public health experts have expressed concern that spacing out doses, as Trump suggests, could increase the risk that children will become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit. Doctors claim, and real-world evidence proves, that vaccines save millions of lives.
“Vaccines are among the most studied and effective tools we have to protect children from serious vaccine-preventable diseases,” said Dr. Willie Underwood, president of the American Medical Association. “Altering a proven vaccination schedule without credible evidence risks undermining public trust and endangering children’s health.”
Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that “delaying or skipping vaccinations it’s riskyespecially now that measles continues to spread and children return to school.”
Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, but rates are now increasing as vaccination rates decline. The number of cases this year has already surpassed the record count for the entire year 2025, which was the worst year for measles in more than three decades.
The claims of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that “in 1970, the largest epidemiological study in history up to that time was conducted. University scientists across the country screened all 8-year-old children in Wisconsin – about 900,000 – for autism. They knew how autism manifested itself. And they came up with an incident rate of 0.8 per 10,000. That’s less than one in every 10,000. According to the CDC, the current rate in this country is one in every 31 children.”
It is true that in the 20th century only one in 10,000 children was diagnosed with autism – the diagnosis was rare and was given only to children with severe communication or socialization problems and those with unusual and repetitive behaviors. But the term became shorthand for a group of milder, related conditions known as “autism spectrum disorders,” and the number of children assigned some form of autism began to skyrocket.
Health authorities have largely attributed the rise in autism numbers to better recognition of cases, thanks to large-scale screening and better diagnosis. In April 2025, the CDC indicated the diagnosis rate was 1 in 31 children.
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During the signing of the executive order, Kennedy and Trump suggested that childhood vaccines could play a role in causing autism. However, studies by the CDC and other institutions have ruled out that possibility. A single fraudulent study claiming a link to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was later withdrawn by the journal that published it.
There are no blood or biological tests to detect autism; The diagnosis is made from observation of the child’s behavior. Research has looked at a variety of other possible explanations, including genetics, the father’s age, the mother’s weight, and chemicals in the environment.
“No environmental factor has been as well studied as a possible cause of autism as vaccines,” said Dr. Alycia Halladay, chief scientific officer of the Autism Science Foundation. “That includes both the ingredients in the vaccines and the body’s response to them. All of this research has determined that there is no relationship between autism and vaccines. This is consistent in multiple studies, repeated in different countries around the world, including those mentioned in today’s (Monday) press conference.”
Last year, Kennedy promised to conduct extensive studies to identify any environmental factors that could cause this developmental disorder. On Monday he stated that his department will release the results of the investigations “as soon as they are ready”.
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