White House officials are preparing an executive order for President Donald Trump that will focus on the childhood vaccine schedule, autism research and parental choice, according to reports.
The move comes after Trump — who's questioned whether vaccines cause autism and says kids should receive "smaller doses" spread out over time — pressed his administration to speed up new government vaccine recommendations, The Washington Post said, citing unidentified sources.
Trump's demand runs counter to the wishes of aides and political advisers who fear it could hurt the president's fellow Republicans in November's midterm elections, according to CNN.
“It's a personal issue for him,” an unnamed administration official told the Post.
It's unclear what the new executive order will say, but an administration official said that linking childhood vaccines to autism could provide “backup ammunition and another legal document” as the federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee prepares its strategic plan for 2026-2028, the Post said.
In a Friday statement to The Independent, the White House didn't deny it was working on the reported executive order.
“President Trump has been clear: America must have the best childhood vaccine schedule in the world,” spokesperson Kush Desai said. “The Administration remains steadfastly committed to delivering on this presidential priority with Gold Standard Science for the countless parents whose questions and concerns about vaccinations have been ignored or mocked.”
Trump's health secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr., is a longtime anti-vaccine activist, and under his leadership, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its website in November to say “the statement ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim.”
Weeks later, the World Health Organization said a new analysis had reaffirmed there was no “causal link” between childhood vaccines and autism, and the American Academy of Pediatrics says any claim otherwise “poses a threat to the health of children and does a disservice to our autistic community.”
During a heated exchange on CNN Sunday, Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, denied “trying to link autism to anything” and told State of the Union host Dana Bash that “you probably don't understand this because you're not a scientist.”
"Well, you're not either," she shot back.
In March, a federal judge in Boston blocked the Department of Health and Human Services from reducing the recommended number of childhood vaccines, in an order the government has appealed.
Trump also responded by issuing a May executive order to align the vaccine schedule “with scientific evidence and best practices from peer, developed countries.”
Kennedy fired CDC Director Susan Monarez last year, less than a month after she was sworn in, with Monarez later telling a Senate committee that she'd refused to give him “blanket approval” on vaccine recommendations.
New CDC Director Erica Schwartz, who the Senate confirmed Wednesday in a near-party-line vote, said during her confirmation hearing last month that she hadn't reviewed the webpage about vaccines and autism, and she declined to say whether it should be removed.
Schwartz also pledged to “never betray the science” and to restore public trust in the agency through “radical transparency.”
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