1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

President Trump’s August 10, 2026 executive order on childhood vaccines is an outrageous use of presidential authority that puts scientifically unsupported claims ahead of the health and safety of American children. During its announcement, President Trump again connected vaccines to autism and suggested that separating and spacing vaccines could have a “huge impact on autism.” Decades of scientific research do not support the claim that vaccines cause autism. Pennsylvania should not allow unsupported theories to determine public health policy in our Commonwealth. The consequences will not be borne only by families making individual vaccination decisions. They will be borne by newborn babies. By children undergoing cancer treatment. By people who are immunocompromised. By medically fragile children and adults who may not develop adequate immunity even when vaccinated. These Pennsylvanians depend upon high community vaccination rates to reduce the circulation of preventable diseases. Their lives cannot be treated as acceptable casualties of political ideology. The executive order specifically encourages states to reconsider their vaccination policies and school requirements. I am asking Pennsylvania to do the opposite. Protect evidence-based school vaccination requirements. Protect access to established childhood vaccines. Ensure Pennsylvania’s vaccine recommendations remain grounded in credible medical and scientific evidence. And do not weaken protections for our schools and communities simply because the federal government has chosen to abandon established science. Pennsylvania has both the authority and the responsibility to protect its residents. Please use it. Do not allow scientifically unsupported federal policy to endanger Pennsylvania’s children and our most medically vulnerable residents.