Opinion: I’ve seen what life is like without vaccines. Americans need to understand what they save us from
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Trump signed an executive order establishing "Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations," pushing states to reconsider school vaccination requirements and calling for childhood vaccines to be administered at separate appointments "to the maximum extent feasible."
- The order specifically calls for eventually replacing the combined MMR vaccine with three separate vaccines, though two doses of MMR remain about 97% effective against measles, the author notes.
- The U.S. has reported 2,465 measles cases as of Tuesday — the highest annual number in 35 years — even though measles was declared eliminated in the country in 2000.
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo is confronting its largest-ever Ebola outbreak, caused by Bundibugyo virus (BDBV); a Phase 1 trial of a BDBV-specific vaccine began in July, and no licensed vaccine exists.
- A 2025 measles outbreak in New Mexico cost an estimated $5.4 million for 100 confirmed cases (~$53,000 per case), compared to about $27 per MMR dose through the federal Vaccines for Children program.
- At the announcement, Trump again invoked autism as a rationale, despite decades of research involving millions of children finding no causal link between vaccines and autism.
Why it matters: The order adds friction to a vaccination system where a dose of MMR costs about $27 while a single measles case in New Mexico cost roughly $53,000 to manage — and because U.S. agencies shape de facto global vaccine standards, the policy shift can ripple into immunization programs in countries that depend on American supply chains and scientific guidance.
Ask SkimNews
