Trump Pressures HHS to Cut Vaccines and Study Autism

President Donald Trump is pressuring Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to aggressively reduce the U.S. childhood vaccination schedule and prioritize research linking vaccines to autism. In May, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Health and Human Services to reduce recommended shots, later accusing Kennedy during May and June meetings of having the "yips" for failing to make sufficient progress.

These directives contradict advice from White House pollster Tony Fabrizio and other political advisers, who warned that vaccine skepticism is politically unpopular and risky ahead of the midterms. Kennedy previously attempted to cut the routine childhood immunization schedule from 17 to 11 vaccines, but a federal judge blocked those changes in March following a lawsuit by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Additionally, Kennedy sought to divert $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health toward vaccine-autism research.

The Department of Health and Human Services is now pursuing research into autism's root causes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently updated its guidance to state that science has not definitively ruled out a connection between vaccines and autism, reversing years of scientific consensus. Public health experts have linked these policy shifts and rising vaccine hesitancy to a 30-year high in measles cases and increased deaths from whooping cough, flu, and tetanus.