This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury.
After President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to alter childhood vaccine guidance, Virginia’s Department of Health on Tuesday reaffirmed the state’s requirements and recommendations for all children to be vaccinated.
VDH Commissioner Dr. Cameron Webb said that Virginia families should trust the state’s decisions to be “grounded in the best available science.”
“The evidence supporting the (American Academy of Pediatrics) immunization schedule is extensive, and we remain confident that following it is one of the best ways to protect children from serious, preventable diseases,” Webb said.
Trump’s order recommends all children receive immunizations for 11 diseases — measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenza type B, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus, and varicella.
It also suggests high-risk populations get vaccinated for “respiratory syncytial virus monoclonal antibodies, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal B, meningococcal ACWY, and dengue.”
The order lists vaccines for diseases like influenza and COVID-19 as immunizations “based on shared clinical decision-making.”
The move is consistent with the Trump administration’s public statements that patients and parents should decide whether to get certain vaccines, rather than treating them as required preventive measures.
Trump’s order also calls for splitting up the combined measles, mumps and rubella — or MMR vaccine — into three separate single-disease shots administered at different times, instead of one visit.
Single-disease shots of that nature are not currently available in the U.S., White House officials acknowledged in a call with media, but they suggested private sector development could make the options available.
Measles, in particular, has been on the rise in Virginia this year, with the bulk of cases occurring in young children. Some parents have been more likely to follow anti-vaccine trends that emerged in the early 2000s and have resurfaced more recently.
When signing the order alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump connected vaccines with autism — a scientifically unproven claim Kennedy has championed for decades amid national anti-vaccine sentiments.
While the current order still notes the importance of certain vaccines, the administration previously sought to de-emphasize the importance of childhood vaccines.
Kennedy has previously recommended against the measles vaccine but he made comments in a recent Congressional hearing and to reporters this spring that he now recommends it.
State health departments set vaccine recommendations, but the federal government could challenge states in some cases for bucking the order.
The president said that the order directs the attorney general to “advance legal challenges against states that violate children’s rights to religious or medical vaccination exemptions.”
The order expressed commitment to “protecting religious liberty and parental authority.”
A Virginian work group will meet later this month composed of healthcare workers, insurance representatives and public health officials to review the state’s statutory and regulatory frameworks for access to childhood and emergency immunizations.
In the meantime, Virginia continues to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics latest immunization schedule.
“VDH will continue to follow the evidence, work with trusted clinical partners, and ensure families have access to the vaccines and reliable information they need,” Webb said.
