President Donald Trump broke his promise to slow down the vaccine schedule, a promise that doctors criticized as counter to public health recommendations.
As a candidate, Trump repeated the falsehood that vaccines are linked to autism, despite the fact that the connection has been debunked by scientists and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccine misinformation is dangerous. Falling immunization rates have been linked to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Doctors say that delaying vaccines is risky.
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During a 2015 primary debate, Trump said: "Autism has become an epidemic… I am totally in favor of vaccines. But I want smaller doses over a longer period of time."
Doctors said Trump's promise countered scientific recommendations.
"Lower doses would not work," said Arthur Caplan, a professor at NYU School of Medicine and an expert on health reform and ethics. "The Food and Drug Administration approves effective doses. Less is not better."
Trump's tenure as president has not led to a dramatic shift in vaccine policy.
"The recommended childhood vaccination schedule continues to reflect the evidence-based consensus of the public health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as major medical professional organizations," said Jason Schwartz, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health. "Minor updates to the schedule happen annually, as they have for decades, but there have been no major changes regarding vaccine doses or timing during the Trump administration."
The White House has limited control over the vaccination schedule. The CDC sets the immunization schedules based on the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
The childhood and adolescent schedules are also approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
The CDC has not changed the schedules since Trump took office.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, immunization rates have dropped but are now slowly on the rise, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which encourages parents to continue to get their children vaccinated.
Trump was a vaccine skeptic long before he was a candidate for president. His rhetoric has changed in the past two years of his presidency. During the measles outbreak in 2019, he said this about vaccinations: "They have to get the shot. The vaccinations are so important. This is really going around now. They have to get their shot."
This year, the Trump administration announced Operation Warp Speed to fast-track vaccines for COVID-19 and has invested nearly $4 billion in companies pursuing vaccines
Trump appears to have walked away from his promise to slow down the vaccine schedule. We rate this Promise Broken.