Former U.S. President Donald Trump has sparked significant controversy and concern among medical professionals with a social media post containing what doctors describe as "fictitious" and "purposely misleading" information about childhood vaccinations.
Misleading Numbers and Manipulated Imagery
On his Truth Social platform, Trump announced a reduction in the U.S. childhood immunization schedule, claiming, "America will no longer require 72 ‘jabs’ for our beautiful, healthy children." He stated the new schedule would recommend vaccines for only 11 serious diseases, aligning the U.S. with other developed nations. The post featured an illustration of a happy European baby with 11 syringes and a sad American baby surrounded by 72 syringes.
Medical experts were quick to dismantle this narrative. Dr. Anita Patel, a pediatric critical care doctor in Washington, D.C., stated, "They’re obviously purposely misleading the public." The claim of 72 individual shots is a manipulation, according to Dr. Lauren Hughes, a board-certified pediatrician and medical communicator. "This is a standard manipulation of truth that the anti-vax movement has coined," she said.
The inflated number is achieved by counting each component of combination vaccines separately. For instance, the DTaP vaccine, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis in one injection, is counted as three "jabs." Similarly, the MMR vaccine (for measles, mumps, and rubella) is falsely tallied as three injections. "He is entirely full of shit. He is counting MMR, which is one injection, as three. This is entirely untrue," Dr. Hughes emphasized.
A Flawed Comparison to Denmark
The Trump administration pointed to Denmark as inspiration for the revised schedule, but experts call this a dangerous and unscientific "cherry-picking" of data. Dr. Ross Newman, an Oregon-based pediatrician, explained that the post "compares apples to oranges" by conflating disease count with injection count.
More critically, Denmark is an outlier. "Denmark is an ‘outlier among developed nations’ when it comes to its vaccine schedule," Dr. Patel noted. Its population of under six million is not comparable to the diverse, mobile, and much larger population of the United States. "The U.S. is highly heterogeneous with high travel and a lot more people than most European countries. Denmark’s total population isn’t even equivalent to NYC," Dr. Hughes explained.
Applying Denmark's minimalist schedule to the U.S. ignores critical differences, including Denmark's universal healthcare system and its higher disease burden for illnesses like rotavirus. "To follow their schedule... while simultaneously ignoring their universal healthcare system, parental leave policies, efficient and detailed healthcare tracking, etc., is just ridiculous," Dr. Hughes argued.
Political Ideology Over Science Puts Children at Risk
All three doctors agreed the schedule changes lack a scientific basis. "None of these changes were made with any scientific change, input or transparency," said Dr. Hughes. "There was no new data published, no new studies, no new information. This was entirely to sow distrust and create confusion."
The consequences are already being felt. Dr. Patel reported seeing "increased under and unvaccinated children, and these children are already coming in with vaccine preventable illnesses." The ultimate cost, the doctors warn, will be paid by children. "Kids deserve better than to be used as a pawn because kids are the ones who will suffer," Hughes stated.
Dr. Newman framed the issue as a fundamental danger of political interference in science: "I think it just points to the dangers of having politicians dictate scientific principle... this is what we end up with, is subpar science being applied inappropriately in a way that will cause harm to families and children."
