WHO chief: US immunization changes ‘not aligned with decades of evidence’

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) criticized changes to the U.S.’s vaccine policy for children on Wednesday.

“@WHO is concerned that recent changes to US immunization policy are not aligned with decades of evidence that show when children are most vulnerable to disease, when vaccines provide the strongest protection, how many doses are needed, and which vaccines can be given together safely,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on the social platform X on Wednesday.
The director-general added that the aforementioned evidence “is reviewed continuously as new data emerge from across the globe.”

“The current evidence is unequivocal: vaccines – including the MMR vaccine – are safe and do not cause autism,” he continued in his post.

On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order targeting the childhood vaccine schedule, recommending splitting up the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot to three separate visits.

The order comes in the wake of efforts by the president and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reorganize and decrease the number of childhood vaccines.

“Effective immediately, my administration is recognizing gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations for only 11 core vaccinations against the most serious and dangerous diseases, along with the MMR, which hopefully will be split up,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

Trump also ordered HHS to improve research into vaccine safety, with a significant emphasis on autism. The president has suggested on numerous occasions that increasing rates of childhood shots have resulted in an increase of autism diagnoses.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.