President Trump signed an executive order on Monday directing that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine be separated into three individual shots, and that childhood immunizations more broadly be spread across separate doctor visits rather than given together. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya framed the order as restoring parental choice over how children are vaccinated, according to CIDRAP’s reporting. There is no evidence that the current combined schedule raises the risk of autism or any other developmental condition. Why the three shots were combined in the first placeThe MMR vaccine has been administered as a single combined shot in the United States since 1971, and the reasoning behind combining it was never about cost alone. Courts have already blocked one version of this administration’s attempt to rewrite federal vaccine recommendations.