PIDS Response to ‘Delivering Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations for Americans’ Executive Order

The “Delivering Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations for Americans” Executive Order represents a deeply concerning departure from the evidence-based processes that have long guided childhood vaccine policy in the United States. This order was not prompted by new scientific evidence or emerging safety concerns. Instead, it calls into question a childhood immunization schedule built on decades of rigorous research, continuous safety monitoring, and the expertise of physicians, scientists, and public health professionals.

American families deserve vaccine policy grounded in science, transparency and evidence. Statements accompanying the Executive Order repeated anti-vaccine misinformation and unsupported claims that risk eroding confidence in vaccines that have safely protected generations of children. This is especially troubling at a time when the United States is confronting the consequences of declining vaccination rates, including major measles outbreaks, a resurgence of pertussis, and the return of other vaccine-preventable diseases.

Contrary to suggestions that there is little downside to altering the vaccine schedule, delaying, separating, or missing recommended vaccines is not a neutral choice. Doing so can lead to missed immunizations, prolong the periods during which a child is most vulnerable to serious, preventable infections, and jeopardize a family’s’ ability to have immunization visits covered by insurance. It also increases the risk of spreading disease to infants, immunocompromised children, and others who cannot be fully protected through vaccination themselves. When families follow the recommended immunization schedule, they protect not only their own children, but also their families, communities, and our nation.

As pediatric infectious diseases specialists, we have seen first-hand the suffering caused by vaccine-preventable diseases. We have cared for children hospitalized with severe infections, witnessed complications that can result in lifelong disability, and supported families confronting outcomes that vaccines could have prevented. It is heartbreaking to see children suffer from diseases for which we have safe and effective tools of prevention.

We encourage families to continue following the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended vaccine schedule, which PIDS has endorsed, and to seek vaccine information from trusted pediatric health professionals. We also call on policymakers and public health leaders to uphold rigorous, transparent, science-driven processes for vaccine recommendations and to put the health and well-being of children above ideology and misinformation.

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