What changed in the CDC’s childhood vaccine schedule

The U.S. on Monday took what the Associated Press described as the unprecedented step of cutting the number of vaccines it recommends for every child, effective immediately, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will now recommend that all children be vaccinated against 11 diseases.

Under the new schedule, protections against influenza, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis, and RSV will no longer be broadly recommended for all children. Instead, the CDC will recommend those protections only for certain groups considered high risk, or when doctors recommend them in a process described as “shared decision-making.”

The Trump administration said the overhaul would not leave families without access to vaccines and said insurance will continue to pay.

Who sets vaccine requirements and how states may respond

The article said state governments, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. It added that while CDC requirements often influence state regulations, some states have begun creating their own alliances to counter the Trump administration’s vaccine guidance.

Administration rationale and the December request

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the overhaul was in response to a request from President Donald Trump in December. HHS said it compared the U.S. with 20 peer nations and found the U.S. was an “outlier” in both the number of vaccinations and the number of doses it recommended to all children.

HHS officials framed the change as a way to increase public trust by recommending only the most important vaccinations for children to receive.

In a statement Monday, Kennedy said: “This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health.”

Trump, reacting to the news on his Truth Social platform, said the new schedule is “far more reasonable” and “finally aligns the United States with other Developed Nations around the World.”

The Associated Press report listed vaccines still on the recommended-for-everyone list, including measles, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, chickenpox and human papillomavirus, or HPV.

The report said the new guidance reduces the number of recommended HPV vaccine doses from two or three shots depending on age to one for most children.

Criticism from medical groups over process and risk

Medical experts criticized the changes, saying the move was made without what they described as public discussion or a transparent review of the data, and they warned it could create confusion for parents and increase the risk of preventable disease.

Michael Osterholm of the Vaccine Integrity Project said: “Abandoning recommendations for vaccines that prevent influenza, hepatitis and rotavirus, and changing the recommendation for HPV without a public process to weigh the risks and benefits, will lead to more hospitalizations and preventable deaths among American children.”

Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics said countries carefully consider vaccine recommendations based on levels of disease in their populations and their health systems. He said: “You can’t just copy and paste public health and that’s what they seem to be doing here,” and added: “Literally children’s health and children’s lives are at stake.”

O’Leary also said flu vaccination recommendations were ended while the country is at the beginning of a severe flu season and after “280 children died from flu last winter, the most since 2009,” adding that the government was “pretty tone deaf” for the decision.

The report said O’Leary warned that even rotavirus, a disease some parents may not have heard of, could return if vaccination rates erode.

Advisory committee role and concerns about who advised leaders

The article said the changes were made by political appointees, without input from an advisory committee that typically consults on the vaccine schedule, and that senior HHS officials speaking on the condition of anonymity were not authorized to discuss the changes publicly.

It also said scientists at the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases were asked to present to the agency’s political leadership about vaccine schedules in other countries in December, but they were not allowed to give recommendations and were not aware of any decisions about vaccine schedule changes, according to Abby Tighe, executive director of the National Public Health Coalition.

Dr. Sandra Fryhofer of the American Medical Association said: “Changes of this magnitude require careful review, expert and public input, and clear scientific justification. That level of rigor and transparency was not part of this decision.” She said the AMA supports continued access to childhood immunizations recommended by national medical specialty societies.

Kennedy’s prior moves affecting vaccines

The AP report said the move comes as Kennedy has repeatedly used his authority in government to translate vaccine skepticism into national guidance, including an earlier decision in May in which the CDC stopped recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women.

It said that in June Kennedy fired a 17-member CDC vaccine advisory committee and later installed replacements, including multiple vaccine skeptics. The report also said Kennedy directed the CDC in November to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism without providing any new evidence, and it said the CDC did not have new evidence supporting that change.

Reporting context

The Associated Press said it based the report in part on background provided by federal officials and the medical experts who criticized the new schedule, and noted that it receives support for its Health and Science Department from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and that AP is responsible for the content.