CDC leader says MMR vaccine should be separated into three doses after Donald Trump calls for ‘totally separate shots’

Jim O’Neil, the acting director of the CDC and deputy health secretary, called for the measles mumps rubella vaccine to be separated into three separate shots, echoing demands the president has made several times. 

In response to a Truth Social post that was then tweeted out on X, O’Neil thanked President Donald Trump for his leadership and wrote: ‘I call on vaccine manufacturers to develop safe monovalent vaccines to replace the combined MMR and “break up the MMR shot into three totally separate shots,” quoting Trump’s original post. 

In the original Truth Social post, Trump wrote: ‘BREAK UP THE MMR SHOT INTO THREE TOTALLY SEPARATE SHOTS (NOT MIXED!), TAKE CHICKEN P SHOT SEPARATELY, TAKE HEPATITAS [sic] B SHOT AT 12 YEARS OLD, OR OLDER, AND, IMPORTANTLY, TAKE VACCINE IN FIVE SEPARATE MEDICAL VISITS! President DJT.’ 

He first made similar comments during a press conference last month in which he linked acetaminophen, known as Tylenol, to autism. 

Trump urged parents to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shots, normally delivered as a three-in-one vaccine, separately.

It is not clear whether it is possible to get the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines separately in the US, with the CDC saying online that only the combined versions are available. The combined shot was approved by the FDA in 1971. 

The CDC says there is no published scientific benefit to support separating the shots. Officials stress that giving the vaccines together means children are protected sooner, endure fewer doctor’s visits and less trauma, while parents save both time and money. 

Trump added during the press conference in September that children should also get the varicella, or chickenpox, vaccine separately, as this can also be given as a combination vaccine with the MMR. 

And Trump also said parents should not get their children vaccinated against hepatitis B until they are 12 years old.

The CDC’s Robert F Kennedy Jr-appointed vaccines advisory panel had previously voted for the agency to no longer recommend the MMR and varicella vaccines be given in the same shot to children aged four years and under. 

Instead, it said that the MMR and varicella vaccines should be administered separately.

Before the announcement, the CDC was already recommending that the MMR and varicella shots be administered separately unless a parent requests the combined version.

Studies show a slightly higher risk of febrile seizures in children who receive the combined shot as a first dose compared to those who receive the two shots separately on the same doctor’s visit. 

Also on Monday, the CDC updated its adult and child immunization schedule to ‘apply individual-based decision making to Covid-19 vaccination.’

And the CDC reiterated its recommendation that toddlers get the chickenpox vaccine separately from the MMR shot.