Trump Orders Rapid Review Of U.S. Childhood Vaccine Schedule, Urges Alignment With Peer Nations

Trump Orders Rapid Review Of U.S. Childhood Vaccine Schedule

President Donald Trump on Friday issued a presidential memo directing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to rapidly review the United States' core childhood vaccine schedule and consider revisions that would bring it closer to the approaches used in other developed countries—many of which recommend fewer childhood doses.

The memo was released hours after federal vaccine advisers moved to downgrade long-standing guidance recommending that newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine within the first day of life. Hepatitis B is a virus that can cause serious liver disease; the change to newborn guidance prompted public comment and media attention, and Trump praised the advisory change on his social media platform.

The presidential directive instructs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to "review best practices from peer, developed countries for core childhood vaccination recommendations — vaccines recommended for all children — and the scientific evidence that informs those best practices." If HHS and the CDC determine those practices are superior to current U.S. recommendations, the memo says they should update the U.S. core childhood vaccine schedule while preserving access to vaccines available to Americans.

"Study is warranted to ensure that Americans are receiving the best, scientifically-supported medical advice in the world," the president wrote in the memo.

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) held presentations at CDC headquarters in Atlanta that questioned aspects of the current U.S. schedule and cited European examples such as Denmark, which generally recommend fewer injections for children. Public health officials and committee liaisons from U.S. medical societies pushed back, noting that many European countries have smaller populations and widely available universal health care with high levels of prenatal and follow-up care.

"In the United States, many of these infants are lost to follow up as soon as they leave the hospital," said Adam Langer, the CDC's hepatitis expert. "Denmark and, for that matter, virtually all other high income countries are not really peer nations."

The memo comes amid ongoing debate about vaccine schedules. President Trump has previously questioned childhood vaccine guidance and at times suggested links between vaccines and autism—positions that run counter to extensive scientific evidence refuting a causal connection. Kennedy has long been a prominent voice on vaccine safety issues and told reporters that Trump had discussed forming a vaccine safety commission during an earlier transition, a proposal that did not materialize then.

This directive sets a formal, time-sensitive charge for federal health agencies to compare U.S. practice with international norms and to provide evidence-based recommendations on whether and how the national schedule should change.