Donald Trump's executive order on childhood vaccines has triggered swift criticism from public health bodies and, more unusually, from the pharmaceutical industry itself. The order pursues a "gold standard" vaccine policy aimed at reducing the number of shots children receive, yet it also demands the combination MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) jab be split into three separate vaccines, which would increase the current two-dose regimen to six injections and requires vaccines that do not currently exist in the US market.

Industry group PhRMA, representing firms including GSK, Sanofi, Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Novo Nordisk, said the order abandons rigorous, evidence-based standards in favour of importing foreign recommendations. Merck and GSK, the two firms making MMR vaccines used in the US, separately stated there is no scientific evidence that splitting the shot improves safety or effectiveness. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which is already suing over earlier vaccine policy changes under Trump and health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and won a temporary injunction in March, called the new order "dangerous," while other health and scientific organisations described it as unscientific and misleading.