Two days after the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr at the helm of the Department of Health, President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order prohibiting the allocation of federal funds to schools and colleges where there is a COVID-19 vaccine requirement.
No state of the Union currently imposes such a requirement, although all states impose certain vaccinations on students to prevent diseases such as measles, mumps, polio, tetanus and whooping cough, with exemptions.
In a fact sheet, the White House writes that vaccination against COVID-19 “threatens educational opportunities.”
The executive order asks the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a plan to end “coercive” vaccine mandates, and report on school compliance. Trump’s directive also applies to educational service agencies, state educational agencies, and local educational agencies.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump pledged to “not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate”.
In his confirmation hearings, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was hammered by a number of Democratic senators for his history of activism against vaccines. On the first day, he tried to mount an offense beginning with his opening statement: “News reports complain that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither.” In the following days, Kennedy made several attempts to portray himself as “pro-vaccine.” But many of the Democrats on the panel repeatedly referred to a variety of public remarks he has made that questioned the safety of vaccines and their effectiveness, or that falsely claimed they were linked to autism.
