Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) affirmed today that the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine was safe and does not cause autism, stating that US President Donald Trump's changes to childhood vaccination guidelines in the United States run counter to decades of scientific evidence. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized the conclusive nature of scientific evidence supporting the safety of vaccines, including the MMR vaccine, and stressed the importance of basing vaccination policy on rigorous, independent, and transparent reviews rather than political influence.
According to Qatar News Agency, Tedros expressed WHO's concern that recent changes to US vaccination policy were not consistent with decades of accumulated evidence. This evidence outlines the periods when children are most vulnerable to disease, the optimal timing for vaccine administration, the required number of doses, and the safe administration of combined vaccines.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order two days ago calling for a review of vaccination requirements for school attendance and reiterated his call for splitting the combined MMR vaccine into three separate shots. The official White House order recommended that states review their school vaccination requirements and called for MMR to be administered as three separate single-disease shots once such products become available domestically.