Major medical organizations, which customarily eschew delving into politics, are finding themselves increasingly at odds with the Trump administration as health policy decisions are being advanced without the backing of scientific consensus.

In the past few months, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under the direction of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has put forward drastic changes to federal guidance on vaccines and this week sounded unsupported warnings about a link between Tylenol and autism.

Medical societies like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have publicly broken with the administration’s guidance.

Both the AAP and AAFP issued COVID-19 vaccine guidance that notably contradicted what the Food and Drug Administration had announced shortly beforehand; it no longer recommends the shots for pregnant women or children without underlying conditions.

The AAP took issue with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's remade Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), noting some of its new members “have a history of spreading vaccine misinformation.”

The ACIP last week voted to no longer recommend the combined MMRV vaccine for children under 4 and further voted to change COVID-19 immunization guidance so that administration of the shot is determined by “individual-based decision making.”

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