El orden de vacunación de Trump otorga victorias a algunos votantes de MAHA, pero brinda a los demócratas un argumento de ataque

President Donald Trump pivoted the nation’s attention back to vaccines this week with an executive orderopens in a new tab or window that aims to scale back the childhood immunization schedule and space out shots into separate visits.

After acting to overhaul the nation’s vaccine policy and guidanceopens in a new tab or window, the Trump administration had recently largely stepped back from additional changes to focus on less controversial subjects, raising questions over the political impetus behind and implications of the Republican president’s renewed focus on vaccines.

For well over a decade, Trump has expressed his view — against medical groups’ guidance — that childhood vaccines should be administered in smaller doses over a long period of time. The executive order sought to bear out that discredited theoryopens in a new tab or window.

While the move could endear Trump to some Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) voters who want more flexibility on immunizations, it’s also already attracting attacks designed to hurt Trump’s aligned candidates in November’s midterm elections.

Jayme Franklin, a 28-year-old conservative activist who appeared with the president to promote his executive order on Monday, said she thinks the action is «going to go a long way» for MAHA mom voters like herself.

But Shaughnessy Naughton, PhD, president of the left-leaning political action committee 314 Action, which aims to elect doctors to office, said she sees the order as «one more data point» in support of Democrats’ cause.

«Our organization and our candidates are certainly going to hammer that message home — that if you want healthcare that’s accessible and affordable, if you want medical advice that is science-based, we need to have accountability in Washington,» she said.

Trump ha llamado durante mucho tiempo a separar las vacunas en visitas separadas

Trump’s doubt in the number and cadence of vaccines dates back at least to 2014, when he posted to social media the disproven claim that combination shots can cause autismopens in a new tab or window and said if he were presidentopens in a new tab or window he would spread them out.

While he’s since shown pride in his first-term Operation Warp Speedopens in a new tab or window effort to disseminate COVID-19 vaccines quickly and praised certain other shots like the polio vaccine, he also has repeatedly called for reforming the childhood vaccine schedule. While his administration released an assessment comparing U.S. childhood vaccine schedules to peer nations’, several of his suggestions have come without any new scientific evidence.

«This is based on what I feel,» Trump said last September when he called for splitting the measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, vaccine into three single-disease vaccines.

On Monday, he again pushed for separating the MMR shot into three, ordering the HHS to work on developing that option for children, since it doesn’t currently exist in the U.S. Public health experts have warned that spacing out shots could increase the risk of infection with a vaccine-preventable disease before a child returns for the next visit.

La mayoría de los estadounidenses no ven la reevaluación de la seguridad de las vacunas como un problema principal

Trump’s views have aligned him with HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist before he entered politics.

The president credits Kennedy’s diverse coalition of MAHA followers — whose priorities range from regulating pesticides to ending vaccine mandates — with helping him win back the White House in 2024.

Even as the Trump administration has handed several wins to the MAHA coalition, including changing the federal dietary guidelinesopens in a new tab or window and an FDA advisory panel vote to loosen restrictions on peptidesopens in a new tab or window, some in the movement have grown impatient as their other priorities remain unfinished. It’s unclear whether Trump’s action to loosen vaccine recommendations, an issue some MAHA supporters are passionate about, will be enough to shore up those voters ahead of the midterms.

Franklin, quien dirige una revista conservadora, dijo que había hablado con Trump sobre hacer las recomendaciones de vacunas más flexibles en una mesa redonda de MAHA a principios de este año. Ella estaba complacida cuando la administración le informó que sus solicitudes se estaban haciendo realidad.

«I think it just really shows he loves to hear from everyday Americans on how his policies and his administration affect the lives of people who are raising kids in this country,» she said.

But political strategists and Trump’s own pollster Tony Fabrizio have warned that efforts to shave down vaccine recommendations may not matter much to most voters this fall.

Polls show most Americans believe children should be vaccinatedopens in a new tab or window to attend school, though Republicans are less likely to see vaccines as important. And as rising pricesopens in a new tab or window on things like groceries, gas, and healthcare tighten Americans’ budgets, many view the economyopens in a new tab or window as a top issue they care about.

«Nothing in America matters more than affordability,» pollster Frank Luntz said. «And anytime the administration or Republicans go off affordability, they’re not talking about what Americans really care about.»

Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said with most Americans viewing vaccines positively, Trump’s announcement «does not strike me as the most persuasive political message.»

Recent polling from the healthcare research nonprofit KFF suggests that even among MAHA supporters, only 10% rank reevaluating vaccine safety as their top priorityopens in a new tab or window for the federal government. Higher-ranking priorities include lowering health costs (42%) and restricting chemical additives in the food supply (21%).

Los demócratas están aprovechando el mensaje de Trump

Asked about the timing of the order with the midterms approaching, a White House official who insisted on anonymity to brief reporters said that the move was a longstanding presidential priority, and that other health issues voters care about were still being addressed.

To that effect, on the day Trump signed the order, the FDA announced an effort to require more transparencyopens in a new tab or window from food manufacturers about new ingredients or additives in foods — something many in the MAHA movement had been calling for.

The administration has also touted its efforts to lower drug pricesopens in a new tab or window and crack down on federal health program fraud, which it argues will save taxpayers money.

Still, Democratic candidates, including doctors linked to Naughton’s group 314 Action, seized on Trump’s order in messages to voters this week.

Richard Pan, MD, MPH, a physician running as a Democrat for the U.S. House in Northern California, reposted the American Medical Association’s condemnation of Trump’s vaccine falsehoods, among other fact checks. He told the Associated Press he thinks voters are deciding between electing people who choose not to hold the administration accountable and those who «stand for the science.»

Annie Andrews, MD, a pediatrician and Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina, pleaded with voters not to take health information from Trump in a video posted on Instagram in collaboration with the left-leaning Courier Newsroom.

«Do whatever you can to help elect scientists up and down the ballot in November, including sending me to the U.S. Senate,» she said to the camera. «I cannot think of a more urgent time for us to have a pediatrician in the roomopens in a new tab or window where these conversations are happening.»

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Fuente: https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/electioncoverage/122588