Trump Offers Disproven Autism Link as Rationale for Changes
“Today’s executive order will do nothing to support families of children with autism or advance understanding of the condition,” he added. AAP said it will not change its vaccine recommendations in response to the executive order.
Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican chair of the Senate health committee, issued his own statement on X. “I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes,” he wrote. “Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism.”
Doctors Oppose the Recommendations for Many Reasons
Experts say their biggest concern about the executive order is that it isn’t based on science.
“We know that the current childhood vaccination schedule is supported by years of scientific evidence. These new recommendations are not,” says Jennifer M. Walsh, DNP, an assistant professor at George Washington University School of Nursing in Ashburn, Virginia, and a primary care pediatric nurse practitioner.
As for dividing the MMR shot into three separate vaccines administered in separate medical visits, “Spacing them out doesn’t make any sense to reduce the burden on the immune system,” Walsh says. She points out that time spent on the playground can expose children to more antigens (substances that can trigger an immune response) than vaccination does.
Besides, the combination shot is safe, Adalja says. “The combined shot exists because giving three antigens at once is exactly as safe as giving them separately,” he says.
The changes would pose logistical and cost issues for families, too, Walsh says. “Spacing vaccines out leads to more incomplete vaccinations for kids,” she says. “It’s also a higher cost, and more of a burden on parents and healthcare practices because you have to have the staff come in for those multiple visits.”
Parents will have to take more time off from work for all those vaccination visits, which can lead to a drop in earnings, and they may need to take additional time off if their child develops a fever or other reaction to the vaccines, she says.
Other countries may also have different childhood vaccination schedules for a reason, Walsh adds. “They are different countries with different healthcare access and infrastructure,” she says. “It is not comparing apples to apples.”
Order Unlikely to Impact Health Insurance Coverage
Health insurers follow recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) when deciding on coverage, Adalja notes, and these guidelines predate the Trump administration.
As a result, the executive order “will not have any impact on insurance coverage.”
Consult With Your Healthcare Provider, Experts Say
Walsh stresses the importance of getting vaccination advice from medical providers, not politicians. “Talk to your pediatric provider about vaccine recommendations,” she says. “We want to talk to parents about any concerns they have. It is our life mission to educate about why we do this, and to help kids thrive.”
Adalja also recommends talking to your healthcare provider. “Follow the schedule your pediatrician and the American Academy of Pediatrics still publish independently of this order — that’s the one built from data, rather than politics,” he says.
Read the full article here
