Based on a finding of the Department of Health and Human Services that the United States currently recommends more childhood vaccines than any peer nation, this executive order directs that the core childhood vaccine schedule should be aligned with scientific evidence and best practices from peer, developed countries while preserving access to vaccines currently available to Americans.
The order directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to take appropriate steps to update the United States childhood and adolescent vaccine schedule and to consider ways to provide maximum flexibility to parents and doctors through recommendations for timing and sequencing of the administration of routine immunizations. All immunizations that are in any category on the schedule recommended by the ACIP and adopted by the CDC should continue to be covered without cost sharing by private insurance and covered by Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Vaccines for Children Program.