Three Vaccines Is Less Vaccine Than One Vaccine, According To Donald Trump

On Monday, Donald Trump doubled down on his weird and eugenic obsession with autism by signing an executive order calling to split up the MMR vaccine for children into three separate shots given in three separate appointments. “I wanna find what’s going on with autism,” Trump said in a press conference held upon signing the executive order, in case his intentions were not totally clear. He then proceeded to estimate the volumes of vaccines with an inscrutable measuring system, referring to “vats of vaccines,” a “big shot like a large glass of something” and “a vaccination thing that looks like the size of a bottle of soda,” as well as syringes containing “what seemingly looks like gallons.”

Although it feels increasingly pointless and embarrassing to refute the rantings of a man who increasingly looks and speaks like a Furby, it is still valuable to do so. The MMR vaccine—a combination shot that protects against measles, mumps, and rubella—is perfectly safe. It is also convenient, as it means parents do not need to schedule three separate doctor’s visits to fully vaccinate their kids. And thought the conversation rate between a gallon, a vat, and a large glass of something remains unclear, none of these measurements apply to the MMR vaccine, which is typically 0.5 milliliters, or a tenth of a teaspoon. (What is this, a vat for ants?)

There is another combination shot, the MMRV, which adds a vaccine for varicella (chickenpox) to the mix and comes with a slightly increased risk of a fever-associated seizure if given to a child younger than 4. But, as Anil Oza explains for STAT, there is little evidence suggesting that further breaking up the MMR vaccine would offer any benefit to a child’s health or safety. What three vaccines does offer is inconvenience for parents and doctors, higher cost, and more physical injections for the kids. Separating shots also increases the chance that a child will get infected by a vaccine-preventable disease before they return to the doctor. Vaccine manufacturers in the U.S. do not even make single-shot versions of the MMR shot, and manufacturing single-dose vaccines would take years of research and testing.