ACEP is concerned by the Trump administration’s recent efforts to change the evidence-based vaccine schedule. Vaccine-preventable diseases exact a profound toll on children and adults alike, and the immunization schedule that policymakers now seek to weaken reflects decades of rigorous, independent scientific review. Undermining it puts patients and the public at risk.

Vaccines are among the most effective tools in medicine. They reduce the transmission of infectious pathogens, protect individuals, and deliver substantial public health benefits to entire communities. Emergency departments sit on the frontlines of this reality. Emergency physicians care every day for inadequately vaccinated patients, stand first in line against emerging biological and infectious disease threats, and see the consequences when population immunity falls.

“Since 2000, ACEP has supported sound vaccination policy that is grounded strictly in the best available evidence,” said ACEP President L. Anthony Cirillo, MD, FACEP. “The vaccination schedule should be evidence-based and shielded from political or commercial interference. Standardized immunization schedules exist precisely so that clinical decisions rest on validated science rather than political agendas. Weakening those standards does not expand choice but does invite preventable outbreaks and erodes the public’s trust in the institutions meant to protect them.”

ACEP calls on policymakers to preserve and strengthen the recommended immunization schedule, to protect the independence of the scientific process behind it, and to keep public health decisions where they belong—with the evidence and the clinicians who see its impact firsthand.