Virginia Department of Health Commits to Evidence-Based Vaccine Recommendations and Ensuring Access to Childhood Vaccinations
The Medical Society of Virginia supports the statement and position of The Virginia Department of Health on evidence-based vaccine recommendations. Statement below.
To see MSV’s full vaccine policy please visit pages 130 and 131 of the policy compendium.
Virginia Department of Health Commits to Evidence-Based Vaccine Recommendations and Ensuring Access to Childhood Vaccinations
Richmond, Va. – In response to the recent Presidential Executive Order pertaining to childhood vaccine recommendations, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) is reaffirming its previously stated commitment to vaccines as an essential tool in protecting the health of children, their families, and their communities.
The Presidential Executive Order does not change vaccine recommendations or school immunization requirements in Virginia. VDH continues to recommend that children are vaccinated in accordance with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2026 Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule. VDH expects that healthcare providers will continue to rely on their clinical training and professional judgment and consult information published by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians when engaging in shared clinical decision-making with parents, caregivers, and patients.
“Virginia’s families should be able to trust that our vaccine recommendations are grounded in the best available science and focused on protecting the health and well-being of their children,” said State Health Commissioner Dr. Cameron Webb. “The evidence supporting the AAP immunization schedule is extensive, and we remain confident that following it is one of the best ways to protect children from serious, preventable diseases. VDH will continue to follow the evidence, work with trusted clinical partners, and ensure families have access to the vaccines and reliable information they need.”
“The Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (VA AAP) stands behind the AAP’s Recommended Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule, which is evidenced-based and rooted in decades of research and data,” said Dr. Erin Brickley, a practicing pediatrician in Marion, Va., and chair of the VA AAP’s Immunization Committee. “We will work together with VDH to continue protecting Virginia children from vaccine-preventable illnesses and ensuring parents have accurate information regarding the importance of on-time immunization.”
Virginia is already taking action to evaluate and protect access to vaccines. Pursuant to Item 278 M1, Ch 1, 2026 Acts of Assembly, Special Session I, VDH will convene its newly established Workgroup on Childhood Immunization Schedules and Public Health Emergencies in late August 2026. This group will bring together key partners – including healthcare practitioners, insurance representatives, and public health stakeholders – to review Virginia’s statutory and regulatory frameworks pertaining to access to childhood and emergency immunizations.
If you have questions about vaccines or vaccine-preventable diseases, please talk to your healthcare provider or contact your local health department for more information.
Update 8/13/2026
Va.’s vaccine recommendations, requirements won’t change after Trump order, officials say
After President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to alter childhood vaccine guidance, Virginia’s Department of Health on Tuesday reaffirmed the state’s requirements and recommendations for all children to be vaccinated.
VDH Commissioner Dr. Cameron Webb said that Virginia families should trust the state’s decisions to be “grounded in the best available science.”
“The evidence supporting the (American Academy of Pediatrics) immunization schedule is extensive, and we remain confident that following it is one of the best ways to protect children from serious, preventable diseases,” Webb said.
Trump’s order recommends all children receive immunizations for 11 diseases — measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenza type B, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus, and varicella.
It also suggests high-risk populations get vaccinated for “respiratory syncytial virus monoclonal antibodies, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal B, meningococcal ACWY, and dengue.”
The order lists vaccines for diseases like influenza and COVID-19 as immunizations “based on shared clinical decision-making.”
The move is consistent with theTrump administration’s public statements that patients and parents should decide whether to get certain vaccines, rather than treating them as required preventative measures.
Trump’s order also calls for splitting up the combined measles, mumps and rubella — or MMR vaccine — into three separate single-disease shots administered at different times, instead of one visit.
Single-disease shots of that nature are not currently available in the U.S., White House officials acknowledged in a call with media, but they suggested private sector development could make the options available.
Measles, in particular, has been on the rise in Virginia this year, with the bulk of cases occurring in young children. Some parents have been more likely to follow anti-vaccine trends that emerged in the early 2000s and have resurfaced more recently.
When signing the order alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump connected vaccines with autism — a scientifically unproven claim Kennedy has championed for decades amid national anti-vaccine sentiments.
While the current order still notes the importance of certain vaccines, the administration previously sought to de-emphasize the importance of childhood vaccines.
Kennedy has previously recommended against the measles vaccine but he made comments in a recent Congressional hearing and to reporters this spring that he now recommends it.
State health departments set vaccine recommendations, but the federal government could challenge states in some cases for bucking the order.
The president said that the order directs the attorney general to “advance legal challenges against states that violate children’s rights to religious or medical vaccination exemptions.”
The order expressed commitment to “protecting religious liberty and parental authority.”
A Virginian workgroup will meet later this month composed of healthcare workers, insurance representatives and public health officials to review the state’s statutory and regulatory frameworks for access to childhood and emergency immunizations.
In the meantime, Virginia continues to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics latest immunization schedule.
“VDH will continue to follow the evidence, work with trusted clinical partners, and ensure families have access to the vaccines and reliable information they need,” Webb said.
