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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that United States (US) President Donald Trump’s plans to change childhood vaccination policy goes against “decades of evidence”.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued the warning on Wednesday after Trump signed an order calling for a review of school vaccine mandates and again pushed for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to be given as three separate shots.
Tedros said scientific evidence clearly shows that vaccines, including the MMR vaccine, are safe and do not cause autism.
“Vaccination policy should be guided by rigorous, independent and transparent review of the best available science, not by political influence,” he said in a post on X.
He added that the WHO was concerned that recent changes to US immunisation policy were not in line with decades of evidence on protecting children from serious diseases.
Tedros also warned that delaying vaccines or unnecessarily separating doses could leave children without adequate protection.
“Vaccines provide the strongest protection,” he said, adding that scientific evidence is continuously reviewed as new data becomes available.
Trump’s Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, has long promoted claims linking vaccines to autism, despite medical research finding no established link between vaccination and autism.
Kennedy has also launched a major review of vaccines, changed the childhood vaccination schedule and reduced funding for new vaccine development.
The measures have drawn strong criticism from medical and scientific groups.
US courts earlier this year also suspended parts of a vaccination policy overhaul initiated by Kennedy.
Every parent wants to keep their children safe, and vaccines are among the most powerful tools for doing that, making deadly diseases preventable. @WHO is concerned that recent changes to US immunization policy are not aligned with decades of evidence that show when children… pic.twitter.com/vCfgJFrFGK
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) August 12, 2026
