White House officials are mulling an executive order that would target vaccines and autism amid a push by President Donald Trump to take more action on the issue, an administration official familiar with the deliberations told CNN.
The potential order is expected to focus on the childhood vaccine schedule and autism research, though the scope and timing of the action have yet to be finalized and could still change.
In recent months, Trump has pressed senior officials, including US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to prioritize greater scrutiny of vaccines — even as many of his aides and political advisers fear that elevating the issue could damage Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Kennedy’s initial efforts last year to overhaul the government’s approach toward vaccines and recommend fewer shots for children prompted sharp blowback, angering the deep-pocketed pharmaceutical industry and alienating a swath of voters across bipartisan lines.
The repercussions eventually prompted Trump officials to urge Kennedy’s HHS to shift its focus toward more mainstream issues ahead of the administration’s midterm push, such as drug pricing and health insurance.
Yet behind the scenes, Trump has continued to press Kennedy and others for more action on vaccines, focusing in particular on efforts to investigate the causes of autism.
Trump has suggested on multiple occasions that there could be a link between vaccines and autism, despite extensive research that has found no connection.
He has also suggested that the US childhood vaccine schedule should be further pared down, sowing doubts about the safety of the shots despite no scientific backing for his claims.
“I believe in vaccines, but I don’t believe that, you know, you have to have a mandate for all of them,” Trump said in a May interview with Sharyl Attkisson. “I really feel that vaccines, if they were given in smaller quantities — they want to cut some out, and that’s good, too. I agree with that.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bloomberg News and The Washington Post first reported the potential for a new executive order.
Kennedy, who was a prominent anti-vaccine activist before joining Trump’s Cabinet, vowed during his first days in office to significantly expand the government’s study of autism, including launching new efforts to investigate vaccines.
But that effort has moved slowly in the months since, spurring frustration among some White House and health officials that HHS doesn’t yet have any significant progress for the administration to tout, two administration officials said.
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