President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 29 directing agencies to align with a scientific assessment that recommended fewer childhood vaccines.
Trump’s order references a scientific assessment by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that compared U.S. childhood vaccine recommendations with those of other developed nations.
The document, issued in January, states that “the United States currently recommends more childhood vaccines than any peer nation, including more than twice as many vaccine doses as some European nations.”
Under Trump’s order, all executive departments and agencies must ensure that regulations on child and adolescent immunization “align with the schedule” recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, while also ensuring that Americans retain their current access to vaccines.
The order also directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its vaccine advisory panel to review the assessment and the latest clinical data and take steps to update the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule.
It states that the review should explore ways to give parents and doctors greater flexibility in the timing and sequencing of the administration of routine immunizations.
“It is the policy of the United States that the core childhood vaccine schedule should be aligned with scientific evidence and best practices from peer, developed countries while preserving access to vaccines currently available to Americans and that the Federal Government will continue to protect religious freedom and enforce all legal protections for parents,” the order reads.
Following the assessment, the CDC issued a revised childhood vaccine schedule in January that ended broad recommendations for vaccines against rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B.
The agency said in a Jan. 5 memo that decisions for those vaccinations should instead be made through “shared clinical decision making,” which involves discussion between parents and healthcare providers.
The changes were made after Trump signed a memo in December 2025 directing the HHS and CDC to review U.S. vaccine schedules and compare them with those of peer countries. He named three countries—Denmark, Japan, and Germany—that recommend fewer vaccines and fewer vaccine doses.
A White House fact sheet accompanying the memo states that the United States currently recommends yearly influenza vaccines starting at 6 months of age, whereas many peer countries do not recommend yearly influenza vaccination as a core childhood vaccination.
“Practices like the hepatitis B vaccination at birth are standard in the United States, but uncommon in most developed countries, where it is typically only recommended for newborns of mothers who test positive for the infection,” the White House stated.
A federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the new vaccine schedule in March following a lawsuit brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups, which argued that officials failed to adequately review relevant data. HHS has appealed the ruling.