Doctor sounds alarm on ‘incoherent’ childhood vaccine recommendations

MS NOW senior medical analyst Dr. Vin Gupta warned about the dangers of President Donald Trump’s executive order to roll back federal childhood vaccine recommendations, blasting the new plan as “incoherent,” “callous” and “not rooted in actual evidence.”

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On Monday, Trump signed an executive order recommending a reduction in the number of immunizations children receive. It also suggested separating the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, also known as the MMR vaccine, into three individual shots.

“Normally, medicine starts with evidence. You then develop a product and then make a recommendation,” Gupta told Jen Psaki on Wednesday evening. “Here, they’ve reversed the sequence: They’ve announced the recommendation, asked manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies to invent the products, and then now they’re looking for evidence to justify it.”

The pulmonologist called the unbundling of the MMR vaccine “completely unnecessary” and pointed out that many across the industry and medical community have spoken out against the president’s plan.

“Even pharmaceutical companies are coming out saying there’s no reason to do this,” he said. “Pediatricians and [The American Academy of Pediatrics], other societies are saying this is going to triple the number of shots for children for this critical set of pathogens we want to protect against.”

While Gupta said concerns about the executive order are legitimate, he stressed that the administration’s recommendations are not legally binding, since neither the president nor the Food and Drug Administration can compel vaccine-makers to comply. 

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“I suspect nothing will actually happen,” he told Psaki. “There’s no teeth to it.”

But even if the president’s plan does not fully materialize, Gupta said the order alone could “create confusion” and fuel the already growing trend of vaccine skepticism in the United States.

“I think a lot of families out there are saying, ‘Well, is there something wrong with a combined vaccine?’” he said. “That, to me, is the rub here … They’re introducing more friction into a system that already has a lot of friction.”

“People are going to miss appointments. It’s going to cause delayed vaccinations and create more susceptible communities,” Gupta explained. “So that’s why this is misguided.”

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You can watch Gupta’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.