The AMA Is Having a Meltdown Because Trump Wants What Europe Already Has

Let me get this straight. The United States gives kids more than twice as many vaccine doses as some European countries. That is not a conspiracy theory I saw on a Facebook group. That is a finding from the Department of Health and Human Services, in a scientific assessment ordered by the President of the United States. And the American Medical Association’s response is to panic.

I have four kids. I have sat in that pediatrician’s office with a stack of papers they hand you on the way in, and I have asked questions, and I have gotten that look. You know the look. The one that says “ma’am, we went to medical school.” Well, congratulations. So did the doctors in Denmark, and they manage to protect their children with fewer shots and no school mandates. How does that work, exactly?

Executive Order 14407, signed May 29 and reaffirmed August 10, does something that sounds radical only if you have been conditioned to believe that parental questions are dangerous. It aligns our childhood vaccine recommendations with peer nations. It offers parents the option of single vaccines instead of combination shots, starting with MMR. It calls for studying the ideal timing and sequencing of childhood immunizations. It directs HHS to develop alternative adjuvants to aluminum and conduct comparative safety studies.

Rhododendrites (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Read that again. The order says: study it. Offer choices. Look at what other countries do. Protect religious liberty and parental authority.

And the AMA is acting like someone just set the clinic on fire.

Since June 2025, the AMA has issued at least 18 separate statements on vaccine policy. Eighteen. They opposed Florida ending vaccine mandates. They opposed changes to the ACIP committee. They opposed the CDC’s hepatitis B birth dose decision. They opposed new ACIP members. They opposed the executive order. They issued infographics. They wrote letters. They joined amicus briefs. At what point does an organization that claims to represent physicians start sounding like a lobbying shop that represents its own institutional power?

ScottRomney (CC0) via wikimedia

Here is what I keep coming back to. The AMA did not dispute the finding that the U.S. recommends more childhood vaccines than any peer nation. They did not say “actually, we give the same number as France.” They just objected to anyone doing anything about it.

The order also notes that implementation has been delayed by litigation over the composition of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. So the same people who spent years telling us to trust the process are now suing to block changes to the process. They removed 17 sitting ACIP members and replaced them without transparency, according to the AMA’s own June 2025 statement. But when the President tries to reset the whole thing toward what works in countries with high vaccination rates and no mandates, suddenly that is the dangerous move.

I have done my own research. I have read the order. It does not ban vaccines. It does not tell anyone not to vaccinate. It says parents should have choices, doctors should have options, and the schedule should be based on gold-standard science. If that scares the AMA, I would like to know what they are actually afraid of.

Measles cases are surging right now. The AMA said so themselves on July 24. Maybe instead of issuing their nineteenth press release, they could ask why parents have stopped trusting them. Here is a hint from every mom group chat in America: it is not because we are stupid.