Trump Orders Review Of US School Vaccine Mandates Amid Measles Outbreak

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing a review of school vaccination requirements while renewing his call for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to be administered as three separate shots.

According to AFP, the order comes amid growing debate over childhood vaccination policy in the United States, where measles cases have surged to their highest level in 35 years.

Trump’s Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has previously led an anti-vaccine organisation and has promoted a discredited claim linking the MMR vaccine to autism.

The World Health Organisation Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, rejected the claim, saying scientific evidence firmly establishes the safety of vaccines and rules out a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism.

He said the science is “unequivocal: vaccines — including the MMR vaccine — are safe and do not cause autism.”

“Vaccination policy should be guided by rigorous, independent and transparent review of the best available science, not by political influence,” he warned in a post on X.

Tedros said the WHO was “concerned that recent changes to US immunisation policy are not aligned with decades of evidence.”

He explained that evidence determines the number of vaccine doses required and which vaccines can safely be administered together, adding that the evidence is continually reviewed as new data become available.

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The WHO chief also warned against changes that could leave children vulnerable to preventable diseases.

“delaying vaccines or separating doses unnecessarily does not make vaccination safer and can leave children unprotected,” he said.

Trump’s latest order comes as the US grapples with a major measles outbreak, with children preparing to return to school in several parts of the country, raising concerns that infections could spread further.

Trump announced plans to withdraw the United States from the WHO after returning to office in 2025, ending the country’s 77-year membership of the organisation.

Despite extensive medical research finding no link between autism and vaccines, Kennedy and other vaccine sceptics have continued to question the established scientific position.

Kennedy has initiated a broad review of vaccines, including long-established childhood vaccines, while also making significant changes to the childhood immunisation schedule and reducing funding for the development of new vaccines.

The measures have drawn strong criticism from medical and scientific organisations.

Tedros, meanwhile, sought to reassure parents about the importance of vaccination, saying “vaccines are among the most powerful tools” for protecting children and “making deadly diseases preventable”.

US courts earlier this year suspended a shake-up of vaccination policy initiated by Kennedy.