California is not changing its childhood vaccination recommendations, or its requirement to have health insurers cover the inoculations, after President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for a reduction in the number of vaccines U.S. children receive, state health officials say.
The executive order, signed this week, calls for scaling back the number of routine childhood vaccinations, splitting the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine into three shots given at separate visits — a vaccine formulation that does not exist — and threatens legal action against states like California that do not allow religious or personal belief exemptions.
California is not changing its vaccine recommendations or requirements for schoolchildren, and health insurers in the state must continue covering the same vaccines as before the federal action.
“Nothing is changing in California except potentially more confusion,” California Public Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan said in an interview Thursday. “It doesn’t impact what we recommend in California, what pediatricians recommend, it doesn’t change any of the requirements for what healthcare insurers should be covering and doesn’t change anything related to school or childcare requirements.”
California’s 2025 Vaccine Law
California enacted a law in 2025, Assembly Bill 144, that gives the state public health department greater authority over vaccine recommendations and which vaccines insurers in California must cover. Under this law, health insurers in California must cover vaccines the state recommends, even if the federal government does not recommend them.
Vaccination requirements for schoolchildren are set by the states. California mandates that children get immunized against MMR, polio, DTaP (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis), hepatitis B, and chickenpox.
West Coast States Break With Federal Guidance
Historically, states routinely adopted federal health agencies’ guidance on vaccines. But during the second Trump administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. significantly narrowed recommendations for who should get vaccines, particularly the COVID-19 vaccine.
In response, California and several other West Coast states broke with tradition and issued their own vaccine recommendations that align with those from medical groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics. On Thursday, these states — collectively known as the West Coast Health Alliance — reaffirmed that they were sticking with their own vaccine recommendations, which align with California’s existing standards.
