PRINCETON—Dr. Richard Besser, President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, released the following statement in response to the executive order calling for an overhaul of childhood vaccine recommendations:
The childhood vaccine schedule has been carefully set following decades of research and evaluation by scientists, physicians, and medical experts. The idea of a president upending that schedule by executive order is beyond anything I’ve experienced in more than 30 years practicing pediatrics. For the health of all our children, this executive order cannot and should not be permitted to stand.
As a pediatrician, I could always trust vaccine recommendations from the CDC and its independent advisors because I knew they were based on science and had the best interests of children at heart. The changes proposed by President Trump fail on both counts. They are deliberately designed to introduce more hesitancy, fear, and confusion among parents and push families to say no to vaccinating their children against dangerous and potentially fatal diseases.
It is simply astonishing that this administration would continue to respond to ongoing measles outbreaks and the return of other vaccine-preventable diseases by playing politics with children’s lives. Federal courts have already struck down many of these proposed changes. Others, like splitting the MMR vaccine into separate shots, serve no medical purpose and would force parents to make multiple appointments, needlessly take time off work and make child care arrangements. Erecting arbitrary barriers to care does not improve the health of a single child.
This executive order has no medical or moral leg to stand on. If it is allowed to go forward, our children are the ones who will pay the price.
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