from the ╭∩╮(-•̀_•́-)╭∩╮ dept

Doctors, Medical Associations Already Giving A Giant Middle Finger To Trump’s Vaccine EO

As expected, this didn’t take very long. Earlier this week we pointed out that Donald Trump supplanted RFK Jr. as the world’s most infamous anti-vaxxer when he vomited out a bonkers executive order that reduced the recommended childhood vaccination schedule for American children, pared down which diseases were recommended for vaccination, and demanded that the MMR vaccine be split into three separate shots on a spaced out timeline. Combined with Trump outright lying in the ceremony about how the MMR shot was the size of a soda bottle and was “lethal”, the waters around inoculating children against truly horrifying diseases became much more muddy.

The consequences for this will be the result of the actions of two different groups of people. The first are American parents. Because an EO is nothing like a federal mandate, parents will have the greatest influence on what shots their children receive, which is exactly how it should be. What shouldn’t be, however, is having an American population in which 30% proudly wear shirts and hats that say “Trump is right about everything!” and act upon that statement. Which means some not-insignificant percentage of American parents will take Trump’s EO and justifications as gospel and will refuse to get some of these shots for their children. That will endanger their own children, of course, but it will also endanger all the rest of us, too. Less vaccinations mean those that have health conditions so they can’t get vaccinated are put at risk as herd immunity disappears, while the rest of us get to sit around and wonder if the increased presence of these diseases will allow for them to evolve beyond our current immunity protections.

The other group are medical professionals themselves. Fortunately, that group at least is already giving a giant middle finger to Trump and his toilet-paper EO. Here’s a local example from Florida.

Pediatricians in Florida are pushing back on President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for changes to the childhood vaccination schedule.

And the state’s leading pediatric medical association, the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said they’re not on board.

“We don’t answer to this nonsense, we don’t recommend changing it,” said Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the FCAAP and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida. “We go by evidence-based science, we don’t go by politics and politicians.”

This is helpful, but it won’t be enough. Still, it is a good thing that the actual medical professionals out there are informing their patients that Trump and Kennedy are medical morons and that they shouldn’t listen to them. Those doctors are going to have some heavy lifting on their hands, specifically because Trump decided to make it harder for those doctors to keep their patients healthy.

In a statement, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics Dr. Andrew Racine called the executive order “dangerous.”

The order “will do nothing to support families of children with autism or advance understanding of the condition,” Racine said in a released statement. “The only purpose of this announcement is to sow confusion so that more people doubt the importance of vaccines. Delaying or skipping shots is risky, especially as measles continues to spread and children go back to school.”

This is where I think it’s worth reminding you all that the case count of measles for 2026 is already at least 2,465, compared with last year’s total of 2,289. And I’ll add on to that the fact that 68% of those cases occurred in children 19 years or younger and 93% of all cases occur in those that are unvaccinated or in which a vaccination status cannot be confirmed.

In other words, the very group of people that are currently being the most harmed by measles are in the crosshairs of this executive order for things to get much, much worse for them. And, and I cannot stress this all, for the rest of us as well.