Trump’s new childhood vaccine order ‘not supported’ by evidence, experts say

Health-care organizations in Canada say U.S. President Donald Trump ‘s latest change to child vaccine standards is “not supported” by evidence, and Canada’s guidelines remain in place.

Trump signed an executive order on Monday calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations that promote his longstanding belief that childhood shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits.

The Canadian Paediatric Society “stands behind Canada’s routine childhood immunization schedule, which is developed by health experts and based on scientific evidence,” according to a statement by the organization provided to Global News.

“Ensuring that children and youth receive all recommended vaccines according to the schedule is the best way to protect them against many serious illnesses,” the society says.

The Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) also expressed it is “concerned” with Trump’s order.

“The recommendations set out in the Order are not supported by current evidence and should not cause Canadian parents or caregivers to delay or alter their children’s vaccinations,” the association stated. “Nothing in the U.S. Executive Order changes Canada’s vaccine recommendations.”

Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus criticized Trump’s order Wednesday, saying that the organization is “concerned that recent changes to U.S. immunization policy are not aligned with decades of evidence that show when children are most vulnerable to disease, when vaccines provide the strongest protection, how many doses are needed, and which vaccines can be given together safely.”

“Delaying vaccines or separating doses unnecessarily does not make vaccination safer and can leave children unprotected.”

In the U.S., the first MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) dose is generally given between 12 and 15 months of age. The second dose is recommended between the ages of four and six.

Trump’s new order will recommend separating the MMR vaccine into three different shots administered in separate visits and direct the nation’s health department to improve vaccine research.

In addition, the U.S. order says one-year-olds should have their shots separated into five separate visits, though it wasn’t clear whether he was talking about all the vaccines they receive or specific ones.

Separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines for children are not currently available in the U.S. Currently, there are 2,465 confirmed measles cases in the U.S. across 47 jurisdictions.

Even as the order calls for revised vaccine recommendations, states, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. The order will advise states with school vaccine mandates to consider updating their laws to reflect the administration’s recommendations.

MMR is a combination vaccine that protects against three different viral diseases: measles, mumps and rubella.