President Donald Trump, in a Friday memorandum, directed Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Acting Director Jim O’Neill “to review best practices from peer, developed countries for core childhood vaccination recommendations — vaccines recommended for all children — and the scientific evidence that informs those best practices.” If Kennedy and O’Neill “determine that those best practices are superior to current domestic recommendations,” Trump further directed that Kennedy and O’Neill update the US government’s childhood vaccine schedule accordingly.

In his memorandum, Trump provided reason for expecting that this direction he is giving Kennedy and O’Neill may lead to several shots being removed from the US childhood vaccine schedule that is used, among other things, as a basis for state government mandates that children receive shots to attend school and even day care. Trump noted that, while the US government recommends children be vaccinated for 18 diseases, in Germany, Japan, and Denmark the government recommended numbers are lower — 15, 14, and 10, respectively.

Trump’s direction in the memorandum lines up with actions Kennedy, O’Neill, and others at HHS have already been taking to scrutinize and curtail shots recommendations for children, including recommendations regarding coronavirus and Hepatitis B shots. It also lines up with a strong critique of efficacy of shots on the childhood vaccine schedule that Kennedy presented in the fall.

The number of shots included in the childhood vaccine schedule has vastly increased over the last six decades. Trump’s new memorandum is an indication that we may see that number soon decline significantly.