There is a wide disparity across the globe when it comes to childhood vaccination policies. American kids receive up to 75 vaccines; twice as many as kids in other countries. That is why if Dr. Heidi Overton is confirmed as the next director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), one of her top priorities should be helping to drive President Trump’s mandate to study the safety and comparative outcomes current vaccine schedule to that of other countries.
High on her list of priorities will surely be the two executive orders President Trump signed this year to promote the health of American children, especially since there doesn’t appear to be any movement on either.
He issued Executive Order 14407 on May 29, 2026, directing the federal government to realign US childhood vaccine recommendations with best practices from peer nations. Section 3 of the order directs HHS, through the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines, to present plans within 90 days to assess timing and sequencing, as well as “improve vaccine safety monitoring, transparency, and research.”
Next, on August 10, the president signed Executive Order 14420 to reduce immunization recommendations from 17–18 diseases down to 11, spacing out shots across more doctor visits, and splitting the combined MMR vaccine into three separate injections.
The president is fulfilling his commitment to vaccination study and reform, but it doesn’t appear that anyone is listening. Ninety days have passed and the task force, chaired by NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, just recently resurrected in August 2025 after 27 years dormant, still hasn’t shared the names of anyone (other than the always present HHS heads) who have been appointed to take charge of designing the study, along with statistical plans, according to a rudimentary internet search.
To date, there has not been any publicly proposed draft study design, outline, list of experts needed, proposed safety endpoints, request for public comment, or even a single primary or secondary safety or efficacy study objective shared.
The Task Force does not owe Congress a report until 2027.
