Aug 6 (Reuters) – The Trump administration is considering issuing an executive order on vaccines and autism as soon as next week, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The effort is prompted by President Donald Trump’s interest in further action, the report added, citing the people. The contents of the order under consideration are unclear, and the timing could still change, the report said.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Last year, Trump linked autism to childhood vaccines and to the use of popular pain medication Tylenol during pregnancy, bringing claims not supported by scientific evidence to the forefront of U.S. health policy.
In January this year, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reconstituted a federal panel that helps guide national autism policy, appointing 21 new members, including some with ties to groups promoting unproven claims linking vaccines to autism.
Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has associated vaccines with autism and claimed that no vaccine is safe, faced a setback in March when a court ruling blocked key elements of his efforts to rewrite U.S. vaccine policy and revamp a CDC advisory panel on immunizations.
(Reporting by Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara)
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