Last week, Trump signed an executive order that would change the vaccine schedule for kids. There’s a lot to it, and a lot that it gets exactly wrong.
It decreases the number of recommended vaccines to 11, removing hep A and B, rotavirus, influenza, COVID-19, and others. It splits the MMR vax — measles, mumps, and rubella — into three separate shots, and recommends that all childhood immunizations should be split into separate visits “to the maximum extent feasible.”
It doesn’t change state law. It doesn’t create any new insurance rules. Every vaccine is still available. Coverage is unchanged. School rules are unchanged. And your pediatrician more than likely will ignore this altogether.
But Dr. Rob Davidson of Paging America says that the threat isn’t the policy Trump is presenting; it’s the skepticism he’s injecting into the minds of American parents. A 95% vaccination rate is the goal for herd immunity. Widespread doubt in the safety of immunizations will begin to peel percentage points off that target.
Take measles. We’re in the midst of the worst measles outbreak in decades, and the kindergarten MMR rate hovers around 92.5%, well below the 95% threshold.
But measles isn’t all we have to worry about. Watch this episode to learn what’s happening, who’s doing it, and what we can do to stop it.
We Learned All the Wrong Lessons from COVID. This Week’s Fauci Hearing Proves It.
Dr. Anthony Fauci spent three hours this week pleading the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times before a Senate committee run by Rand Paul. It was a sad, destructive spectacle that tells you everything about how badly we’ve botched the lessons of a pandemic that killed more than a million Americans.
