President Trump signed an executive order Friday that halts federal funding for schools and universities that require students to be vaccinated against coronavirus.

The order would block federal funding to education agencies, K-12 schools and colleges and universities that require students to get COVID-19 vaccination to attend classes in person.

It also directs newly-sworn in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert. F. Kennedy and the education secretary to create guidelines that institutions can follow and provide a plan to “end coercive COVID-19 vaccine mandates.”

Vaccine mandates were a major flashpoint during the COVID-19 crisis, particularly during the Biden administration, which mandated the shots for federal workers, the military and health care personnel.

The rules sparked a series of legal battles and philosophical and scientific fights over whether the government should require a person to take a pharmaceutical product.

Meanwhile, some colleges, schools and private employers mandated the shots. The backlash to the mandates animated Mr. Trump’s campaign in 2024 and Mr. Kennedy’s platform en route to becoming the health secretary.

The revelation that COVID-19 vaccines may thwart serious disease but could not stop transmission outright, deepened opposition against the mandates.

Mr. Trump’s executive order is largely forward-looking and geared toward satisfying Mr. Trump’s base.

No College Mandates, a group that fought COVID-19 shot requirements, says that as of the end of 2024, only 15 colleges scattered across the country had vaccine mandates. Many of them were relatively small schools.

Most cities, employers and schools have dropped mandates on COVID-19 masks or vaccines. For instance, the D.C. Council voted in late 2023 to repeal its controversial COVID-19 vaccine mandate for school children who were old enough to get the shots.

On Jan. 27, Mr. Trump signed an executive order reinstating service members who were thrown out of the military for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

The move will return roughly 8,000 service members to their original rank with back pay and any benefits they lost when they were booted out of the military under Mr. Biden. The order followed through on a pledge that Mr. Trump made on the campaign trail and in his inaugural address on Jan. 20.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.

• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.

• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.