President Trump signed an executive order last Friday that would reshape childhood immunization in the US by cutting the number of routinely recommended vaccines nearly in half. The nation’s doctors are not on board.

The order directs the CDC to adopt a “scientific assessment” that aligns US vaccine policy with Denmark — a country roughly the size of Maryland with universal healthcare and a small, homogeneous population. The assessment, produced by two Trump administration officials with no vaccine policy expertise, recommends keeping vaccines for only 11 diseases on the routine childhood schedule, down from the current 17. Gone would be recommendations for vaccines against hepatitis A and B, meningitis, rotavirus, influenza, and COVID-19.

“There is no credible scientific evidence to support” such a change, American Medical Association President Bobby Mukkamala said in a statement. The current schedule, he added, “is built on decades of rigorous research and real-world data.”

The assessment was co-authored by Tracy Beth Høeg, a sports medicine doctor, and Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician — both allies of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longstanding anti-vaccine activist. The acting CDC director at the time, Jim O’Neill, is a technology investor, not a physician or public health expert.

Even the country the administration chose as its model finds the whole thing puzzling. “It’s not at all fair to say look at Denmark unless you can match the other characteristics of Denmark,” Dr. Anders Hviid of Denmark’s equivalent of the CDC told the New York Times in December.

A federal judge already issued a temporary injunction in March blocking an earlier version of these changes, finding that Kennedy violated federal regulations in implementing them. Fifteen states are now suing to stop the policy, arguing Denmark’s approach “cannot be retrofitted to the US.”

The administration is appealing that injunction. In the meantime, the order asks the CDC to press ahead.

Sources