President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to align with a January study from the Department of Health and Human Services that recommends reducing the number of childhood vaccines.

The executive order references "a scientific assessment that compared United States childhood immunization recommendations with those of peer nations" published by the health department under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership. The assessment calls for cutting recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11.

According to the study, the recommended vaccines that would be removed from the schedule include those for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningitis, rotavirus, influenza, and COVID-19. The CDC had previously announced updated recommendations earlier this year that would reduce the number of recommended immunizations for children.

The executive order uses general language to instruct federal agencies to use the health department assessment as a guide for childhood vaccination policy. The order does not explicitly name which specific vaccines would be removed from current recommendations.

The change would represent a significant shift in federal vaccination policy, as the current CDC schedule includes vaccines that have been standard recommendations for children for years. The order gives Trump's endorsement to the narrower vaccination approach outlined in the January study.