WHO chief warns Trump’s vaccine policy overhaul is against ‘decades of evidence’

The World Health Organization (WHO) has cautioned that President Donald Trump's proposed changes to the US vaccine policy are contrary to "decades of evidence". On Monday, Trump issued an order seeking to reconsider school vaccine mandates and advocate splitting the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three individual doses.

His Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has founded an anti-vaccine group and has tirelessly propagated a disproven connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus firmly stated that the scientific consensus is "unequivocal: vaccines, including the MMR vaccine, are safe and do not cause autism".

He emphasized that vaccine policy should be based on a thorough, independent, and transparent review of the best available science, rather than political pressure. Tedros expressed concern over the recent modifications to US immunization policy, as they are not consistent with the "decades of evidence" that demonstrate children's heightened vulnerability to diseases at certain stages.

He reiterated that vaccines offer the most robust protection, specifying how many doses are required and which vaccines can be administered concurrently without risk. Tedros highlighted that adjusting or fragmenting doses unnecessarily does not enhance vaccine safety and may leave children vulnerable. He also cautioned that medical research has never established any link between autism and vaccination.

Despite this, Kennedy and his supporters persist in questioning the relationship. Kennedy has initiated a comprehensive review of existing vaccines, overhauled the child vaccination schedule, and reduced funding for new vaccine development, actions that have been strongly criticized by the medical and scientific community. In recent months, US courts have halted some of the policy changes Kennedy had initiated.