- Federal health officials at the CDC have released a new childhood vaccination schedule.
- The new recommendations indicate that all children should be vaccinated against 11 diseases, while vaccinations for six other diseases are recommended only for children at higher risk.
- Experts say the new recommendations will discourage some parents from getting their children inoculated, which could lead to higher rates of childhood diseases.
Many health experts are harshly criticizing the new childhood vaccination schedule unveiled this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
On Monday, federal health officials released new vaccination recommendations for children.
The guidelines reduce the number of primarily targeted diseases from 16 to what the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has described as the 11 “most serious infectious diseases.”
Vaccinations against the following diseases are still recommended for all children:
The CDC is revising its recommendations on six other diseases to include only children who are at higher risk of infection. Those diseases include:
CDC officials added that vaccinations for children against influenza, COVID-19, and rotavirus should be based on “shared clinical decision-making,” which means parents must consult with a healthcare professional before their children receive the vaccinations.
Vaccines for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal ACWY, and meningococcal B for children at average risk also fall under the domain of shared clinical decision making.
The officials emphasized that all vaccinations are still available for families who wish to receive them. They also noted that the guidelines still require insurance companies to fully cover all vaccinations.
“After an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent. This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a statement.
The new recommendations are receiving the support of at least one medical professional interviewed by Healthline.
Monique Yohanan, MD, a senior fellow for health policy at Independent Women, said the new schedule is good policy.
“This is a positive development,” Yohanan told Healthline. “It is a more focused, risk-proportionate schedule. It preserves vaccines with clear herd immunity and community protective value, and it removes only those with limited population benefit. From an epidemiologic standpoint, it is more coherent than the prior schedule,” said Yohanan, who recently wrote a paper, “Rethinking Vaccine Policy.”
“The real opportunity is that it has the potential to improve trust and re-engage families who had reached a threshold and opted out of vaccination entirely,” she added.
Inderpal Randhawa, MD, a pediatrician and immunologist as well as the medical director of the Children’s Pulmonary Institute at MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach and the founder of Food Allergy Institute in Long Beach, CA, said the new guidelines could restore confidence in some sectors of the public, However, he expressed concern about the lack of scientific data behind the findings.
“The shift toward a more ‘focused’ immunization approach by categorizing vaccines based on risk and parental decision alongside physician counsel reflects an effort to rebuild trust and engage families in shared decision-making,” Randhawa told Healthline.
“However, public health policy must be grounded in rigorous scientific evidence and epidemiological data to ensure children are protected against serious infectious diseases,” he added.
Other health experts are more sharply critical, saying the new recommendations will erode public confidence in vaccinations and cause an increase in childhood diseases.
“This is a terrible, terrible, terrible idea,” said Danelle Fisher, MD, a pediatrician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA.
“This adds a barrier to childhood vaccinations and sends the message that these diseases aren’t so bad,” Fisher told Healthline. “It also adds more fuel to anti-vaccination people.”
Experts say the new CDC regulations may discourage parents from getting their children vaccinated, or at least make it more difficult.
Paul Krogstad, MD, a pediatric infectious disease expert at UCLA Health in Los Angeles, said that parents may now have to make separate appointments to ensure “shared decision making” on certain immunizations.
“People may need to make a specific time to get these,” he told Healthline.
Krogstad said a decrease in overall vaccinations could lead to an upsurge in all diseases. He notes that we have seen this lack of herd immunity in measles cases, which rose to more than
“This will allow nature to take its course,” Krogstad said. “This will create an impediment to preventing disease. It takes everything to a whole new level.”
William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease expert and professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, also sees a rise in many diseases under the new policy.
“I, and my colleagues in public health, pediatrics, and family medicine, were dismayed and concerned by the newly recommended infant/childhood vaccination schedule,” Schaffner told Healthline.
“It is not based in science or sound public health,” he added. “It will turn back the clock to the bad old days. If followed, the new recommendations will result in children suffering infectious diseases that could have been prevented completely.”
“There is legitimate concern that relaxing universal recommendations could reduce vaccine uptake for diseases that are currently rare but still pose real risks,” added Randhawa. “Historical data show that when vaccination rates drop, even uncommon diseases like measles can resurge. This is why the evidence base behind each change must be transparent, robust, and clearly communicated to clinicians and families alike.”
There are several diseases, however, that are key concerns for health experts.
One is hepatitis A, a viral infection that is usually transmitted through contaminated food and water or close physical contact with someone who has the disease.
Fisher noted that hepatitis A can cause liver damage and “is not a benign disease.” There is no cure, although many people recover on their own within a few months.
Another concern is rotavirus, a highly contagious disease most common in children under 5 years of age. Dehydration is a major concern for people with rotavirus.
Krogstad said rotavirus can cause severe diarrhea in children and lead to hospitalization. He said it can be prevented with the current “well-tested” oral vaccine given to children.
Another concern for Krogstad is the flu. He said children 6 months to 23 months of age have the same serious risks with the flu as older adults do.
“People really underestimate the danger influenza poses to young children,” he said.
Fisher said all this misery can be avoided with widespread vaccinations.
“Kids are going to suffer. Families are going to suffer,” she said. “There is no need to make people and families suffer.”
In developing their recommendations, Trump administration officials reviewed the vaccination policies of 20 other developed nations.
They concluded that the United States is a “global outlier among developed nations in both the number of diseases addressed in its routine childhood vaccination schedule and the total number of recommended doses.”
The officials noted that the U.S. vaccination schedule doesn’t necessarily produce better results.
“Many peer nations that recommend fewer routine vaccines achieve strong child health outcomes and maintain high vaccination rates through public trust and education rather than mandates,” they wrote.
The officials said they came up with a vaccination schedule that closely resembles the one now in place in Denmark.
“President Trump directed us to examine how other developed nations protect their children and to take action if they are doing better,” Kennedy said.
However, experts caution that comparing the United States to Denmark is a misguided approach.
She notes that the United States population is far more diverse than Denmark’s. The northern European country also has a universal health system that provides preventive care as well as immunization coverage.
In addition, Fisher noted that Denmark has a much colder climate than most of the United States. She said that limits the type of diseases as well as their spread.
Schaffner agrees the comparison is not valid.
“European countries are smaller, less diverse, and provide universal medical care to their populations,” he said. “Among the European countries, Denmark is the outlier, recommending fewer routine vaccines than the other countries. They are not an optimal model for the U.S. to follow.”
Experts interviewed by Healthline said they will now encourage people to seek advice from their doctors about childhood vaccinations rather than rely on the federal government.
“It deeply saddens me to say that the U.S. public and its medical providers can no longer rely on our federal government’s vaccine recommendations,” said Schaffner.
“Ignore them; rather, look to recommendations from professional organizations to provide solid, science-based vaccine recommendations,” he continued.
Fisher also advocates that people talk to their doctors about vaccinations rather than listen to the federal government.
“The medical community doesn’t just cure diseases, we also try to prevent them,” she said.
