U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, blasted President Donald Trump on Monday after he signed an executive order overhauling the national childhood vaccine schedule, warning that the administration is pushing dangerous misinformation that threatens children's health.
"Trump’s new executive order changing the childhood vaccine schedule against the advice of pediatric experts is dangerous and makes no sense," said Frankel in a statement. She represents Florida's 22nd Congressional District.
She's running in November for Florida's newly drawn 23rd Congressional District, spanning Palm Beach County to include parts of West Palm Beach and running south to include Boynton Beach. Her primary opponent is retired intellectual property attorney Victoria Doyle.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations that promote his long-held but discredited theory that childhood shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits.
The order advocates separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different single-disease shots and administering all childhood immunizations at separate appointments whenever possible. It also directs the nation’s health department to improve research on vaccines, which are already extensively studied, and present a plan to offer separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines for children, since that is not currently an option in the United States.
The renewed focus on vaccines marks a departure from the Trump administration’s recent efforts to emphasize less controversial health policies related to healthy eating, drug price negotiations and medical fraud crackdowns ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Trump called the announcement a “major victory for parents rights, religious and constitutional rights, and for the gold standard science.”
Frankel said "these changes could mean more sick children, more trips to the doctor, and higher health care costs for families."
"Our grandchildren should not be guinea pigs for political ideology or conspiracy theories," she said. "As a grandmother, I am furious. Our kids deserve medical decisions based on science, not politics.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
READ MORE: Progressive candidate Victoria Doyle set to debate Democratic incumbent Rep. Lois Frankel
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