Push for Goldstandard Health

New Executive Order 14420 reshapes the federal government’s approach to vaccinations as of Aug. 10. The required list of diseases dropped from 18 to 11 and other aspects emerged following the order that can change upcoming standards for vaccinations within children and in schools.

On Aug. 17, CNN Health reported: “The administration signaled that it will push states to rework their vaccine requirements to incorporate the new federal guidelines, effectively upending longstanding practices aimed at improving childhood immunization rates.”

The government is aiming for Gold Standard Childhood Vaccination (framework of the new executive order), while comparing to other countries that have a lower amount of disease vaccination requirement. Ongoing research and reports are being taken into consideration while the guidelines for vaccinations in the states are still being debated. 

The White House reported that they will, “assess the ideal timing and sequencing of all core childhood vaccines and adjust the Federal childhood and adolescent vaccine schedule as appropriate based on gold‑standard science.”

Though, with the new implementations there was a record high of kindergarteners who didn’t receive a required vaccine last school year. This is because of the changing state protocols and exemption rates trending upwards. 

While personal and health issues are affecting vaccination rates, the push for parental choice and allowing exemption for personal or health issues is causing state exemption rates to spike with, “4.2% of kindergartners having an exemption for at least one required vaccine during the 2025-26 school year.” reported CNN Health.

While there is a push for allowing parental exemptions, the order calls for states to configure their own standards for childhood vaccinations, this follows a common theme of choice in the order. 

John Hopkins University reported that,“States have different policies about who is required to be vaccinated. All states have medical exemptions, meaning that if you’re going to get sick from the vaccine, you don’t have to take it.” while, “Most states have exemptions for religious beliefs, although how exemptions are implemented varies from state to state.”

It is important to note that part of the order is to decrease the amount of diseases vaccinated at once, this moves into creating more parental choice in deciding when and what vaccinations their children should receive. This goes along with the effort to split the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella) into 3 separate shots for children. 

Other aspects of the order include, “Establishing a federal task force to review and potentially revise existing vaccine safety data” along with “Directing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to reevaluate vaccine injury compensation policies and reporting,” reports US News.