Former Biden adviser blasts Trump vaccine move: Don’t want to be like Tajikistan

Healthcare Former Biden adviser blasts Trump vaccine move: Don’t want to be like Tajikistan Comments: by Sarah Davis - 08/11/26 9:29 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Sarah Davis - 08/11/26 9:29 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House coordinator of the COVID-19 pandemic under former President Biden, is speaking out against the Trump administration’s new “gold standard” recommendations for childhood vaccines.

On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order that would split up the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot across three separate doctor’s visits.

The MMR vaccine has been administered as one shot since the 1970s, and vaccine experts have warned that this change could place children at a greater risk for contracting infectious diseases.

Jha called the move a “terrible idea” in a Monday interview with NewsNation, The Hill’s broadcast partner.

“No other country does this,” the doctor said. “No country in Europe does this. Tajikistan used to do this, but they don’t even do that anymore. But I don’t want to be like Tajikistan, right? I want to be like Canada and [the] U.K. and Germany and France, and none of them do this stuff.”

The public health expert noted that the vaccines are not currently offered in single shots and expressed doubt that drug manufacturers would want to produce this for just one country.

“I think this just makes it much harder and more confusing for parents, and I think that’ll lead to fewer parents even getting their kids vaccinated at all,” Jha said.

The change to the MMR vaccine builds on the Trump administration’s previous efforts to cut down on the number of required vaccines for children.

States are responsible for setting their own childhood vaccine schedules, and the federal government’s recommendations serve only as a guide.

The president of the American Medical Association (AMA) sharply criticized the new federal recommendations.

“Vaccines are among the most thoroughly studied, effective tools we have to protect children from serious vaccine-preventable diseases,” Dr. Willie Underwood III said in a release.

“Decisions about how and when vaccines are used should be driven by rigorous scientific evidence, patient safety, and independent medical and public health expertise,” the AMA president continued. “Altering a proven vaccination schedule without credible evidence risks weakening public confidence and putting children’s health at risk.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a doctor, also called these new MMR immunization recommendations “wrong” in a social media post.

“Breaking up vaccines will mean children have to get more shots to get the same protection, not fewer shots,” the senator wrote. “It will increase hesitancy and make children less safe.

“Parents should listen to their child’s pediatrician about vaccines rather than listening to an inaccurate executive order,” Cassidy continued. “This is so wrong.”

During the executive order signing in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump also suggested multiple times that an increase in childhood immunizations has led to an increase in autism diagnoses. He directed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to continue its research into vaccine safety.

This theory about a link between vaccines and autism has been platformed by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and widely disputed by the broader scientific community.

On the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) webpage about the MMR vaccine, the federal public health organization notes that there is “no link” between this vaccine and autism.

“Scientists in the United States and other countries have carefully studied the MMR vaccine. None have found a link between autism and the MMR vaccine,” the CDC webpage states.

Jha said the president’s repeated references to an unsupported link between autism and vaccines show Trump is “consistently getting bad advice on this issue.”

“Obviously, a lot of us are concerned about what is causing autism, and we need more studies on that,” Jha said. “One thing we know is it’s not vaccines. Could be other things, environmental factors.”

He added, “We should be studying those things and not getting distracted by the vaccine part.”