AntiTrumpAlliance

Yes. Hes that stupid. Wonder what that makes the people who allowed this administration to happen in the second place.

www.newsweek.com Medical experts assess Trump's "bottle of soda" claim about childhood shots By Hollie Silverman and Andrew Stanton0ShareNewsweek is a Trust Project member 8 - 10 minutes

President Donald Trump claimed while signing his executive order on childhood immunizations Monday that he had seen vaccinations "the size of a bottle of soda poured into a little child's body," arguing that vaccine doses should instead be spread across multiple visits.

Medical experts say that description bears little resemblance to the actual volume of vaccines children receive under the routine U.S. immunization schedule, closer to a couple of tablespoons.

Trump made the remarks as he unveiled an executive order that would overhaul federal vaccine recommendations, including splitting the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into separate shots and shifting several vaccines from universal recommendations to a shared decision-making model between parents and doctors.

“Protecting children from preventable infectious diseases must remain a national public health priority," Robert H. Hopkins Jr., MD, Medical Director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), told Newsweek in a statement on Tuesday. "The United States is currently experiencing its largest measles resurgence in more than three decades."

"The nation is approaching another respiratory season after two severe influenza seasons, including a record-high hospitalization rate in 2024–2025 with one of the highest pediatric death tolls on record and nearly 200 pediatric deaths in 2025–2026," he noted.

A nurse prepares an MMR vaccine for a patient at Tiger Pediatrics in Easley, South Carolina, on March 17, 2026. How Much Vaccination Do Children Actually Receive?

According to Melissa Stockwell, Division Chief of Child and Adolescent Health at Columbia University, the total volume of routine childhood vaccinations is far smaller than Trump's description suggests.

"The volume of immunizations children receive is actually quite small," Stockwell told Newsweek.

Using combination vaccines currently recommended in the U.S., the total volume of routine early childhood immunizations amounts to about two teaspoons, excluding influenza and COVID-19 vaccines.

Even when routinely recommended school-age and adolescent vaccines are included, the cumulative amount rises to about one tablespoon over an entire childhood. Adding annual flu and COVID-19 vaccinations from infancy through age 17 brings the total to only "a couple of tablespoons" throughout childhood.

Those figures stand in sharp contrast to Trump's comparison to a bottle of soda, which typically contains 12 ounces (or 24 tablespoons). Newsweek reached out to the White House for additional comment, but was referred to the comments Trump made in the Oval Office today.

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who is also a physician, posted on X about the benefits of vaccines, saying, "A single vaccination can prevent multiple diseases. It means fewer shots, fewer trips to the doctor, fewer opportunities for side effects, fewer missed work days for the mother, all while protecting children against more diseases.

"If we’re going to Make America Healthy Again, take into account what is more likely to prevent diseases and what is convenient for the mother and the family," he continued, adding, "This is why parents are losing faith in this Administration. It doesn’t take into account how many things parents have to balance to raise their children and to be able to afford to keep their children healthy."

President Donald Trump (L) and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shake hands during a meeting in the Oval Office to sign an executive order about vaccines on August 10, 2026. What Experts Say About Immune System Impact

Stockwell also challenged arguments that children are overwhelmed by the number of vaccines on the recommended schedule. She said the total number of antigens, proteins and sugars recognized by a child's immune system across all routinely recommended vaccines combined is roughly 160 to 170.

"To put that in perspective, one single bacterium can contain thousands of these antigens," Stockwell said, adding that a child's first bacterial ear infection or case of strep throat exposes the immune system to far more antigens than all recommended vaccines combined.

The comments echo broader medical consensus that modern vaccines contain significantly fewer antigens than older vaccines despite protecting against more diseases.

"It's deeply disappointing, concerning. This is a dangerous further step down this anti-science, anti-intellectual path that America has been marching on under Republican leadership," Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician and a Democratic South Carolina Senate candidate, told Newsweek on Tuesday.

"This will lead to further unnecessary preventable illness and suffering amongst children. I feel for parents of young children, pregnant women, parents of infants who don't know where to turn to get sound medical advice because the decisions that were announced from the Oval Office have nothing to do with an evolution of evidence-based science," Andrews said.

"It has nothing to do with us discovering something new about vaccines. RFK Jr. continues to be nothing more than a conspiracy theorist and a grifter," Andrews said, adding, "He shouldn't be anywhere near the process of public health policy making in this country, and yet here he has been elevated to lead our nation's Department of Health and Human Services."

Andrews said parents should "talk to their own pediatrician about their vaccination schedules, about decisions that they are making. "I really urge parents to talk to their own doctors, their own pediatricians, and ignore what they are hearing from our R.F.K. Jr., Donald Trump and Dr. Oz."

"The vaccine schedule, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, is safe and effective, as are all the vaccines recommended in it," she said, noting that "it's a balance of, you know, meeting the urgency of newborn risk for these preventable infectious diseases, because in those first weeks and months of life newborns' immune systems are not ready to fight a lot of these infections, and that is why we concentrate vaccinations in these first months of life."

A baby receives a malaria vaccine at the Soa District Hospital in Yaounde, Cameroon, on April 29, 2026. Vaccine Debate

Trump's executive order comes amid a contentious debate over childhood vaccine recommendations. The White House says the changes are intended to increase parental choice and bring the United States closer to practices used in some other developed countries.

However, pediatricians and public health organizations have raised concerns that separating vaccines and increasing the number of appointments could make it harder for families to complete immunization schedules.

Stockwell said there is "no scientific or public health rationale" for splitting the MMR vaccine into three separate injections. She warned that requiring additional visits could increase the risk of missed or delayed doses, leaving children vulnerable to diseases for longer periods.

"There is no established clinical or immunologic benefit to separating out the MMR vaccine into three separate shots," she said.

In an interview with Wayne Allyn Root that aired on Monday night, Trump doubled down on his assertion that he was not doing harm by signing the executive order.

"What do you have to lose? If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Nobody's going to get hurt by it," Trump said in a phone interview on Real America's Voice, adding, "MMR, if you give them separately the M, the M, and the R, it's fine. When you put them together, they're sort of like a nuclear weapon, according to some."

President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order about vaccines on August 10, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House. Public Health Concerns

Medical groups have also pushed back against suggestions that routine childhood vaccinations are causing widespread harm.

In a statement emailed to Newsweek on Tuesday, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases said vaccines remain among the most effective tools for preventing serious illness, hospitalization, disability and death in children. The organization noted that the United States is experiencing its largest measles resurgence in more than three decades and urged policymakers to base vaccine recommendations on scientific evidence rather than political considerations.

The group warned that making vaccines harder to obtain could reduce uptake and increase the risk of outbreaks of diseases that have long been kept under control.

For parents trying to navigate conflicting messages, Stockwell said pediatricians should remain the primary source of guidance.

"We know there is so much conflicting information and can be difficult for parents to know what to trust," she said. "Pediatricians spend years training to evaluate the scientific evidence, understand an individual child's needs and help families make informed decisions that are best for their child."

As debate over Trump's vaccine overhaul intensifies, experts say one point remains clear: the actual quantity of vaccine a child receives over the course of childhood is measured in teaspoons and tablespoons, not soda bottles.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Samantha Beech, Gray R. Thomas, Sam Wilson.