CDC cuts recommended childhood vaccines in US amid controversy
“This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy said in a statement Monday.
Reacting to the news on the Truth Social platform, Trump said that the new program is “much more reasonable” and “finally brings the United States into line with other Developed Countries in the world.”
President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy at the Make America Healthy Again event in May.Credit: access point
Those remaining on the recommended list for everyone include vaccines against measles, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, chickenpox and human papillomavirus, or HPV. The guidance reduces the recommended number of vaccine doses against HPV from two or three doses to one for most children, depending on age.
Medical experts have said that implementing such changes without public debate or transparent review of data would put children at risk.
“Abandoning vaccine recommendations that prevent influenza, hepatitis, and rotavirus and changing HPV recommendations without a public process to weigh risks and benefits will lead to more hospitalizations and preventable deaths among American children,” said Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota Vaccine Integrity Project.
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Sean O’Leary from the American Academy of Pediatrics said that countries carefully evaluate vaccine recommendations according to the disease levels in their populations and their health systems.
“You can’t copy and paste public health, and that’s what they seem to be doing here,” O’Leary said. “Children’s health and lives are truly at risk.”
Most high-income countries recommend vaccination against a dozen to 15 serious pathogens, according to a recent review by the Vaccine Integrity Project, a group working to protect vaccine use.
France today recommends that all children be vaccinated against 14 diseases, compared to the 11 diseases that the United States will recommend for every child under the new program. Australia recommends that all children be vaccinated against 16 diseases.
Doctor groups criticized the decision
O’Leary said the changes were made by political appointees without any evidence that current recommendations harm children.
An annual flu vaccine is recommended for all Australians over the age of six months.Credit: Shutterstock
The pediatricians’ group has published its own childhood vaccination schedule that its members follow and continues to widely recommend vaccines that the Trump administration has scaled back.
O’Leary singled out the flu vaccine, which the government and leading medical experts have long recommended for nearly everyone from six months of age. He said the government was “pretty tone deaf” about stopping his advice after the country was at the beginning of a severe flu season and 280 children died from flu last winter – the most since 2009.
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Even rotavirus, a disease parents may not have heard of, can reemerge if the effect of vaccination wears off, he added. This diarrheal disease once hospitalized thousands of children every winter, but that doesn’t happen anymore.
Top HHS officials said the decision was made without input from an advisory committee that typically consults on vaccine schedules. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the changes publicly.
Officials added that the new recommendations were a collaborative effort between federal health agencies, but did not specify who was consulted.
Abby Tighe, executive director of the National Public Health Coalition, said scientists at the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases were asked to make presentations to the agency’s political leaders in December about vaccine programs in other countries, but they were not allowed to make any recommendations and were not aware of any decisions regarding vaccine program changes. He said his group is an advocacy organization made up of current and former CDC employees and supporters.
“Changes of this magnitude require careful review, expert and public input, and clear scientific justification. This level of rigor and transparency was not part of this decision,” said Sandra Fryhofer of the American Medical Association. “The scientific evidence remains intact, and the AMA supports continued access to childhood vaccines recommended by national medical specialty societies.”
Kennedy has long been skeptical of the vaccine
The move comes after Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccination activist, repeatedly used his authority in government to turn his skepticism about vaccines into national guidance.
In May, Kennedy announced that the CDC would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women; this change was immediately questioned by public health experts who saw no new data to justify the change.
