US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order pushing for a rethink of school vaccine mandates and repeating calls for the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to be separated into three individual shots.
Curbing vaccines has been a key priority for US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The federal government does not have direct control over several areas covered by the order.
States, for example, have the authority to require vaccinations for students to attend school.
In another section, it says the US Health and Human Services department will form a task force to offer the MMR shot as individual vaccines "by working with the private sector and other countries as appropriate, while guaranteeing continued availability of combination vaccines and those vaccines recommended for shared clinical decision-making."
Medical experts push back
New York City's health commissioner, Alister Martin, said the order was based "in politics."
"Cities and states can set their own recommendations and requirements, and many, including New York City, have moved away from the federal government's recommendations,” Martin said in a statement.
Public health experts have long advised that the combined shot offers children more protection faster and also decreases the logistical hurdles for parents who may struggle to make multiple appointments.
In a call with reporters, Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), estimated it would take more than a decade to develop approved separated vaccines in the US.
"We're advising that you continue to give children a vaccine that has decades of safety data," added Aaron M. Milstone, a member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases.
The president's latest order arrives just as children across the country are readying to return to school.
