‘KEEP THE VACCINES’: Pediatrician emphasizes importance of shots

President Donald Trump issued an executive order three weeks ago calling for major changes to federal childhood vaccine guidelines.

One problem — major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, not to mention infectious disease experts, strongly oppose the presidential order.

To help kickstart his new “medical” executive order into gear, the president invoked fear into his rhetoric: “Large amounts of vaccine, large amounts of like vats of vaccine are currently pumped into your child’s body.”

Simply not true. Vaccine amounts actually vary by vaccine, but most include less than 0.5 milliliters per vaccine — usually 0.1 to 0.3 milliliters per vax. (Source: AP.)

But the president isn’t dissuaded. In that same Oval Office announcement made Aug. 31, he said, “I’ve seen proof of it. Where they have a vaccination that looks like the size of a bottle of soda poured into a little child’s body.”

For reference, a typical soda bottle contains 500 milliliters, or approximately 2,500 times more than a typical childhood vaccine that continues to save lives.

The president, however, is convinced that the new vaccine plan he oversaw with the help of Bobby Kennedy, Jr., current secretary of Health and Human Services, a longtime anti-vaxxer who possesses no medical degree, is the way to go moving forward: “There’s nothing that we lose with this. The worst thing that would happen would be nothing happens. We’re not going to lose anything.”

Except, perhaps, for the kid in math class currently on chemo with a very compromised immune system who just caught an ugly virus from an unvaccinated student simply because his parents are anti-vaxxers, and Texas allows them into our public schools..

Of course, the president is the same guy who predicted this past spring that the Iran War, now six months old and counting, would only last four to five weeks: “Right from the beginning we predicted four to five weeks — a little excursion…We estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve our mission, and we’re way ahead of schedule.” (Source: ABC News.)

What Could Go Wrong?

The president’s new executive order is aimed at getting states to revise childhood vaccine recommendations, which include separating the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate single- disease shots, and getting children vaccinated at separate appointments whenever possible.

What could possibly go wrong?

From an Associated Press story dated Aug. 11, 2026:

“I’m concerned about an unintended consequence of people under vaccinating because of fear that giving a single dose of the MMR is going to put their child at risk when there’s no evidence to suggest that’s the case,” said Dr. Aaron Milstone, pediatric director of infection prevention at Johns Hopkins Health System and a fellow with the American Academy of Pediatrics. “There are many, many, many years of scientific data highlighting the safety of vaccines in children.”

Stay Vaccinated

Dr. Roel Esteban Cantu, PSJA 1977 grad, opened his RGV clinic, based in San Juan, in 2007, after practicing for years at the Nuestra Clinica Del Valle in McAllen.

He has dedicated his life to treating children, adolescents, and knows the value of modern-day vaccinations.

At his Upper Valley Pediatric andAdolescent Health Care Clinic on 495 in San Juan, Cantu said the best advice he can give is for parents to keep up with the current vaccine recommendations. (The same ones the president is trying to change via executive order.)

“Well, the thing is, get them done, right?” said Cantu.

“But a lot of people are saying, ‘No, let's split them up.’

“I mean, they’re looking at the aspect of, ‘Oh, my baby’s going to get three vaccines in one time or four vaccines. I’ll just rather get two and then two later,’right?”

Cantu said there is too much misinformation out there among the public, and too many people are saying do this and don’t do that.

“A lot of these kids end up in the hospital.”

The flu vaccine is not a mandatory thing, said Cantu, but that puts kids in hospitals too. The elderly get it done, but a lot of people, oh my God, all this social media thing has just made things go crazy.”

One problem, said the seasoned pediatrician, is the negative effects of things related to not getting vaccinated “Now, under Medicaid, you can’t deny that they don’t want it (a vaccine or vaccines). As long as they have an affidavit that they don’t want it, you’re fine. But what’s happening is, down the road, these no-vaxxers…let’s say the kid gets chicken pox, and the kid sitting next to him is going through chemotherapy. You know that can be very detrimental to that child.”

Which would seem to make vaccinations more of a public health issue as opposed to a personal choice, some argue.

The ease of using these forms (affidavits) varies widely depending on the state. For example, a recent Texas law allows parents to easily download non-medical exemption forms directly online, while other states require parents to complete a mandatory state vaccine education program, get a health department official to countersign, or re-submit and notarize the paperwork with every single school.

“So now you’re putting a child in a classroom who is a no-vaxxer (based on parental beliefs) who can be exposed to anything, and then give it to everybody. You know, right?” said Cantu.

Stay with (current vaccine recommendations), said Cantu. “I mean, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the AMA (American Medical Association) all back that up. Do it. I mean, think about it. When we were kids, and my kids, they were getting seven and eight shots in one sitting. Now, a lot of the vaccines are combined, so there are not that many. But the parents look at it and think, ‘Oh, he’s going to get this, and oh, he’s going to get that.’

Like going through a cafeteria line, picking and choosing this and that, while discarding decades of medical science that backs up current vaccine recommendations along with their scheduled shots.

Then there is the issue of autism as it does or does not relate to infant vaccines, based on who you listen to these days.

In fact, Bobby Kennedy, over at the Department of Health and Human Services, has maintained for years that infant vaccines and autism are linked, which is in direct opposition to decades of global and medical science consensus. (Source:The Guardian.)

“What do you say to them?” asked Cantu.

“Because there is no correlation. No vaccine has been proven to (cause autism).”