On Friday of last week, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to weigh in on the vaccine schedule of American children. He posted: “BREAK UP THE MMR SHOT INTO THREE TOTALLY SEPARATE SHOTS (NOT MIXED!), TAKE CHICKEN P SHOT SEPARATELY, TAKE HEPATITAS [sic] B SHOT AT 12 YEARS OLD, OR OLDER, AND, IMPORTANTLY, TAKE VACCINE IN 5 SEPARATE MEDICAL VISITS!”
For parents looking for definitive guidance on when to vaccinate their kids, and for a medical establishment left in limbo by presidential announcements that circumvent official communication channels, Trump’s post raised more questions than it answered.
There’s no one better equipped to answer these questions than Dr. Vinay Prasad, a name that will be familiar to Free Press readers. (Read all of his pieces here.) Prasad is now the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration, where he oversees the vaccine schedule and regulation.
I spoke with Dr. Prasad to help make sense of it all. Was Trump’s post a change in official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance? What’s the current status of vaccine research and regulation under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? Should children receive the hepatitis B vaccine? Is the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine safe?
Read our conversation below.
