This Isn’t Normal. It’s OK To Say So.

This is a good graphic, with a clear, simple, direct message, from the American Psychiatric Association. I do wish it did not have a comma splice and I do wish it did not unnecessarily uppercase the word autism, but I will not quibble in these fraught times.

This presidential executive order about childhood vaccines is so out of order, it’s confusing everyone. It is not normal.

It’s not only OK to tell people this, it’s imperative that those with enough experience and education in public health and law do so. This is no time to waffle or defer to authority. The American public is confused and their president is adding to the misinformation and disinformation.

There’s no reason to speculate as to his motives. There’s also no reason to repeat all the incorrect things that are being said about vaccines.

Here’s what journalists and the general public both need:

Short, clear, declarative statements about what is true.

Brief explanations about how you know it’s true.

And, because it’s 2026 and nothing is normal…

A short declaration that the president, the secretary of health and human services and whoever else might be involved are not telling the truth. It’s important to help the news media say these things, because we have all been trained for entire careers to not say so.

And despite having debated this for an entire four-year Trump administration already, and another year of a second one, the coverage so far shows that newsrooms are still defaulting to covering this president as if he were normal and sane and acting in good faith.

It is vital to help show that this vaccine issue doesn’t come down to Trump and RFK Jr and vaccine skeptics on one side saying one thing, and a few scientists on the other having a fair and even-sided debate, which is how some of the coverage is sounding.

Educated people who understand this stuff will have to say in clear, understandable language that these issues have been tested and demonstrated and that they are not in doubt. The childhood vaccine schedule wasn’t just thrown together. A president cannot just decide to break up a combined vaccine on a whim, and someone needs to say it in words that are clear and simple.

So, if you want to help people understand, please tell them in short sound bites.

· This is not normal.

· We used to have committees of true experts who understood how our bodies work who made these decisions. Do you really think President Trump has that expertise?

· Pediatricians – the doctors who specialize in treating children – understand that these vaccines are the best way to protect them from dangerous diseases that can kill them or make them very ill.

· You cannot even get a separate measles vaccine and while you wait for one, your child is in danger.

Provide visuals. We need more visuals to help people understand how the immune system works and to counter some of the idiotic ideas being floated by the president.

Keep it short. Keep it simple. People can only absorb three to five ideas at a time. We all have ADHD to some degree in these post-pandemic, social-media-dominated times.

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Whatever you may think of Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, he got the messaging right in this tweet:

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D.@SenBillCassidy

I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism. Breaking up vaccines will mean children have to get more shots to get the same

Axios @axios

Trump executive order would split up MMR vaccine https://t.co/3f4xEPdcYN

8:03 PM · Aug 10, 2026 · 5.58M Views

21.9K Replies · 3.33K Reposts · 16.7K Likes

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D.

@SenBillCassidy

I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes.

Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines

Here’s a European Union infographic about the combined MMR vaccine: