Trump, RFK Jr. Are Officially Tearing Down the Childhood Vaccine Schedule

The Trump administration’s war on vaccines has reached a dangerous new phase. Today, the White House enacted its plan to effectively remove several vaccines from the recommended childhood vaccination schedule.

Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill officially carried out the action Monday afternoon in his role as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC will now only routinely recommend childhood vaccines for 11 diseases, down from the 17 diseases previously recommended by the health agency. The change supposedly aligns the U.S. with other peer countries while ensuring the continued health of Americans—a claim that many experts and former CDC officials strongly contest.

“As a physician deeply committed to public health and the well-being of our communities, I must emphasize that changing the vaccine schedule without the input of American experts in pediatrics, infectious diseases, and public health compromises both the scientific integrity and the transparency we owe to families,” Demetre Daskalakis, the former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told Gizmodo.

“Dangerous and unnecessary”

The Trump White House has been angling to tear down the vaccine schedule for some time, an effort led by anti-vaccination zealots like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the current head of HHS, and his allies.

During the December meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Tracy Beth Høeg, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), argued that the U.S. should consider adopting Denmark’s lighter schedule. Denmark universally recommends childhood vaccines for 10 diseases, whereas the U.S. universally recommends vaccines for 16 diseases (that number was 17 until the recent ACIP-led change to revoke its recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine).

Soon after, President Donald Trump gave his blessing to this effort, issuing an executive order calling for the U.S. to change its schedule. Just before Christmas, HHS planned to officially announce this revision but backed out at the last minute, reportedly due to objections from some officials that the change would face legal and political challenges. But this reprieve was only temporary, as it turns out.

The CDC will continue to universally recommend the vaccines for children that are recommended by Denmark’s health agencies. These vaccines cover measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), pneumococcal disease, and human papillomavirus (HPV). Unlike Denmark, but like many other countries, the CDC will continue to universally recommend that children be vaccinated against chickenpox.

The CDC has now created two other categories of vaccine recommendations, however.

Some vaccines will be advised for people at higher risk for certain diseases; these vaccines will cover respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), hepatitis A, hepatitis B, dengue, meningococcal ACWY, and meningococcal B.

The third category will recommend vaccines on an individualized, “shared clinical decision making” basis. These vaccines cover rotavirus, covid-19, influenza, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B.

All in all, the CDC has removed its universal vaccine recommendations for six diseases: hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, RSV, flu, and meningococcal disease.

None of these changes appear to have gone through the typical process for reassessing the vaccination schedule. And, to put it lightly, outside health experts are dubious about the purported justification for them.

“Today’s announcement by federal health officials to arbitrarily stop recommending numerous routine childhood immunizations is dangerous and unnecessary,” said Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a statement provided to Gizmodo.

Even health officials from Denmark have criticized the rationale for this change, noting that the U.S. is very different from the Scandinavian country. Among other things, Denmark has universal health coverage and better screening programs for diseases like hepatitis B.

And contrary to the Trump administration’s argument, many countries are similar to the U.S. in the number of vaccines they recommend to their residents, including Canada, Germany, and Japan. Just this year, the UK implemented its new routine recommendation of the combined chickenpox, measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine—a vaccine that RFK Jr.’s ACIP pushed to no longer recommend for very young children last year.

Prior to being hijacked by Kennedy, the CDC had also correctly noted that there is no credible evidence supporting any health risk to children from the amount or timing of vaccines previously recommended in the U.S.

What to do now

The CDC’s changes do seem to come with a silver lining. People will reportedly still be able to secure insurance coverage, without any cost-sharing, for all the vaccines previously on the CDC’s universal list.

It’s also unclear whether the CDC’s about-face will significantly affect school vaccine mandates, since states individually decide which vaccines are required for children to enter the public school system. Though states have historically relied on the CDC’s guidance to shape their vaccine policy, many have signaled that they will not automatically implement the changes endorsed by RFK Jr. and his allies. Organizations like the AAP have also already launched lawsuits against the Trump administration for past abrupt changes to its vaccine policy, and it’s certainly possible something similar could happen here.

The federal government is right to note that childhood vaccination is ultimately a decision made by families, a decision aided by doctors and current scientific knowledge. So while RFK Jr. might have succeeded in changing the rules to get his way, Americans will hopefully be willing to listen to people who actually have their children’s best interest at heart.

“Parents should look to their pediatricians for guidance—trusted professionals who know their communities and understand the needs of local families. Decisions about your child’s health should be grounded in medical expertise and familiarity with your circumstances, not dictated by federal political appointees,” Daskalakis said. “Our focus must remain on protecting the health and future of every child, using evidence and compassion as our guide.”