The World Health Organization has publicly defended its childhood immunisation guidelines after President Trump signed an executive order reinforcing his administration's move to cut the number of recommended childhood vaccines in the United States from 17 to 11. A WHO spokesperson said the organisation's vaccination schedules are based on years of global scientific research into immune development and disease susceptibility, and urged countries to follow this evidence base, implicitly pushing back against Washington's approach.

The order shifts vaccines against RSV and hepatitis B to being recommended only for "high risk" children, and reclassifies the rotavirus vaccine as a "shared clinical decision" between parents and doctors, all three of which remain part of WHO's standard recommendations. US states set their own immunisation rules but generally follow federal and global guidance, and medical experts have strongly criticised the changes: American Academy of Pediatrics president Dr Andrew Racine called them "disheartening" and "dangerous", while former White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr Ashish Jha described a new proposal to split the MMR vaccine into three separate doses as a "terrible idea" with no precedent among other developed nations.