As a practicing pediatrician and president of the Sangamon County Medical Society, I have serious concern about the Aug. 10 executive order targeting routine childhood vaccinations. I addressed vaccine policy in March 2025, and the evidence remains unchanged: vaccines are among the most thoroughly studied and safety‑monitored interventions in medicine. They protect the vaccinated child and our community’s most vulnerable people – infants, cancer patients and others unable to fight off these diseases.
Much attention has focused on the MMR vaccine. It is administered as a combined immunization because separating measles, mumps and rubella into three individual injections is not presently possible. Even if it were, it would add additional needle pokes, clinic visits and logistical burdens for families and providers. Requiring six injections instead of two would discourage vaccination and complicate protection from these diseases.
The executive order also creates an immediate risk. Public questioning of vaccine safety can prompt parents to delay or forego vaccination while awaiting alternatives that do not exist and will not be available for years. History is instructive in this situation. After discredited claims about MMR in the United Kingdom, vaccination rates declined and measles outbreaks followed. Trust, once broken, takes years to restore and in the meantime, diseases that were once only described in textbooks can return within months.
The human toll of these illnesses underscores why these vaccines matter. During the 1964-65 rubella epidemic in the U.S., around 20,000 infants were born with congenital rubella syndrome. When rubella occurs in the first trimester of pregnancy, there is a 65-85% risk of fetal death or multiple congenital anomalies; surviving infants may suffer deafness, blindness, heart problems and intellectual disability. Mumps can cause testicular problems in 20-30% of adolescent males and, before widespread vaccination, was a leading cause of viral meningitis and deafness in children, complications now virtually unheard of because of vaccination. In addition, prior to the 1960s, measles killed hundreds of people a year in the U.S. Now, death from measles is exceedingly rare, thanks to widespread immunization.
Routine childhood immunization also has substantial economic benefits. It is estimated to save $2.7 trillion in societal costs over a generation. By preventing these illnesses, vaccines avert direct medical costs, such as hospitalizations, outpatient visits, lab tests and longterm care for disability, as well as indirect costs such as lost parental work time, school absences and reduced lifetime productivity for children who suffer permanent complications.
I understand concerns about risks. Like any medical intervention, vaccines can cause side effects, but they are usually mild and brief, such as soreness or low‑grade fever. Decades of rigorous studies and continuous safety surveillance have found no causal link between vaccines and autism. The risk of severe illness, long‑term issues, or death from measles, mumps and rubella infection far exceeds the small, well‑characterized risks of vaccination.
Public health policy must be guided by scientific evidence and the goal of protecting the community. For decades, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the American Academy of Pediatrics have agreed on the need for a broad array of child vaccines. Abrupt reversal of these policies will weaken established vaccination programs and reverse hard‑won gains in disease control and endanger children and vulnerable neighbors. If you have questions about vaccines, please consult your pediatrician or family physician. Vaccination protects individuals and the community, and prevention is a shared responsibility.
Dr. Shreepada Tripathy is a practicing pediatrician and president of the Sangamon County Medical Society.
This article appears in September 17-23, 2026.
