The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday, August 12, expressed concern over the new vaccination recommendations announced this week by Donald Trump, as they are not based on available scientific data.
“Vaccination policy must be based on a thorough, independent, and transparent examination of the best available scientific data, not on political considerations”, warned WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on platform X.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday containing new vaccine recommendations, calling for increased intervals between children’s vaccinations. In presenting this document, he repeatedly mentioned autism.
“WHO is concerned that recent changes in vaccination policy in the United States do not correspond to the scientific evidence accumulated over decades”, stated Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
He explained that this data “indicates the periods when children are most vulnerable to diseases, the moments when vaccines provide the best protection, the necessary number of doses, as well as which vaccines can be safely administered simultaneously”. He added that this data is constantly reviewed as new information comes in from around the world.
“The available evidence is clear: vaccines, including the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, are safe and do not cause autism”, he noted. WHO has repeatedly emphasized the lack of a link between vaccination and this neurodevelopmental disorder.
The head of WHO also warned that “delaying vaccination or unjustifiably increasing the intervals between doses does not make vaccination safer and can leave children unprotected”.
Condemnation by the medical community
Medical studies have not established any link between autism and vaccination, but U.S. President Donald Trump, like his health minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr., continues to suggest that such a link may exist.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for his anti-vaccination views, after being appointed health minister, initiated a large-scale review of vaccines, some of which have been used for decades, changed the childhood vaccination schedule, and cut funding for the development of new vaccines. The medical and scientific community strongly condemned these measures.
Earlier this year, the American judicial system suspended his initiated reform of U.S. vaccination policy. The executive order signed by Donald Trump on Monday recommends, in particular, administering separate vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella instead of their simultaneous administration in a single injection.
Source: Libération
