\n The US Department of Health and Human Services is recommending fewer vaccines for most American children, health officials said Monday.\n <\/p>\n
\n Health officials will continue to recommend the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines and immunizations against polio, chickenpox, HPV and others, but they are narrowing recommendations for vaccination against meningococcal disease, hepatitis B and hepatitis A to children who are broadly at higher risk for infections.\n <\/p>\n
\n They recommend that decisions on vaccinations against flu, Covid-19 and rotavirus be based on \u201cshared clinical decision-making,\u201d which means people who want one must consult with a health care provider.\n <\/p>\n
\n HHS said that its recommendations for immunizations against respiratory synctytial virus, or RSV, remain unchanged and that infants born to mothers who did not receive the vaccine should have one dose.\n <\/p>\n
\n The changes\u202fcome amid a\u202fsharp increase in flu cases<\/a>\u202facross the country. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported nine pediatric deaths from flu this season.\n <\/p>\n \n HHS said that all insurers will still cover these vaccines without cost-sharing. However, the changes could present new hurdles for parents who need to consult with doctors about immunizations no longer recommended for healthy children.\n <\/p>\n \n The new US schedule of childhood vaccines more closely resembles that of other developed nations such as Denmark, as\u202fCNN reported last month<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Denmark does not currently recommend childhood vaccinations against rotavirus, hepatitis A, meningococcal, flu or chickenpox.\n <\/p>\n \n US health officials initially planned to announce the changes in December, weeks after Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, newly named acting director of the US Food and Drug Administration\u2019s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, gave a presentation on the Danish vaccine schedule to the CDC\u2019s panel of vaccine advisers.\n <\/p>\n \n The panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunizations Practices, was reconstituted last year with a new group of members after US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine skeptic, dismissed all previous appointees.\n <\/p>\n \n The overhaul comes one month after President Donald Trump ordered the health department to review the childhood vaccine schedule.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt is ridiculous!\u201d Trump wrote in a Truth Social post in December, after his executive order. \u201cThat is why I have just signed a Presidential memorandum directing the Department of Health and Human Services to \u2018FAST TRACK\u2019 a comprehensive evaluation of Vaccine Schedules from other Countries around the World, and better align the U.S. Vaccine Schedule.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In a post on X, Kennedy responded: \u201cThank you, Mr. President. We\u2019re on it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The new vaccine schedule is a \u201cfar more reasonable\u201d one that protects children against \u201c11 of the most serious and dangerous diseases,\u201d Trump wrote in a Truth Social post<\/a> Monday night. \u201cParents can still choose to give their children all of the Vaccinations, if they wish, and they will still be covered by insurance.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In a separate post<\/a>, Trump signaled that he still wanted to see more changes: Namely, the separation of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three separate shots.\n <\/p>\n \n Several public health experts warned that the changes announced Monday could fuel outbreaks of preventable diseases.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think that a reduced schedule is going to endanger children and lay the groundwork for a resurgence in preventable disease,\u201d said Dr. Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist and director of the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.\n <\/p>\n \n Denmark is not a good blueprint for US vaccine policy, said Anders Hviid, who leads vaccine safety and effectiveness research at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark.\n <\/p>\n \n They\u2019re \u201ctwo very different countries. Public health is not one size fits all,\u201d he told CNN in an email.\n <\/p>\n \n In Denmark, \u201ceveryone has access to excellent prenatal and childhood care. As I understand it, that is not the case for everyone in the US. Vaccines prevent infections that may have poor outcomes for children who do not have access to good healthcare.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n HHS in a statement said that reducing the number of recommended vaccines would help restore public trust in health agencies \u2014 and possibly confidence in vaccines themselves. The agency reasoned that despite recommending more shots, the US does not have higher vaccination rates than peer countries that rely on \u201ceducation rather than mandates.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The government\u2019s vaccine outreach and messaging has been vastly reshaped under Kennedy, who has questioned vaccine safety for decades.\n <\/p>\n \n It is a \u201cconfusing time\u201d for doctors and parents, Dr. Sean O\u2019Leary, chair of the American Association of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, said Monday.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhat was announced today is part of a decades-long effort on the part of the health secretary to spread fear and falsehoods about vaccines, and this is another step in the secretary\u2019s effort to dismantle the US vaccination system,\u201d O\u2019Leary said.\n <\/p>\n \n At the same time, public information about vaccination rates is faltering.\n <\/p>\n \n Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services dropped requirements for states to report childhood vaccination status for beneficiaries, a move that experts say may raise unnecessary doubts about the importance of vaccines. CMS sent a letter to state health officials on December 30 stating that vaccination data no longer needs to be submitted to the agency that oversees Medicaid and Medicare.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis is another message that could create doubt in people\u2019s minds about the need for vaccines, and that isn\u2019t something that\u2019s supported by current science,\u201d said \u200bDr. Michelle Fiscus, a pediatrician and chief medical officer of the Association of Immunization Managers.\n <\/p>\n \n The CMS requirement for reporting childhood immunization status was relatively new \u2014 it was implemented in 2024 \u2014 and there are other federal systems to track immunization rates. But more than 40% of children in the US are covered by Medicaid and the Children\u2019s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, and immunization surveillance offers important insights.\n <\/p>\n \n CMS said it plans to \u201cexplore options to facilitate the development of new vaccine measures\u201d after dropping this requirement. These new measures may include tracking how often parents are informed about vaccine safety and side effects and alternative vaccine schedules, as well as how to capture \u201cpreferences related to vaccines\u201d and how religious exemptions may be accounted for.\n <\/p>\n \n States may continue to voluntarily report childhood vaccination data to CMS, but Fiscus says that may depend on the political party of local leaders.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think this is going to contribute to this schism between states based on their party of government,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see more of this patchwork of state policies around immunizations, and that\u2019s unfortunate, because these diseases don\u2019t really care about state borders so much.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The changes drew criticism from Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician who voted for Kennedy as health secretary only after assurances<\/a> that he would \u201cwork within\u201d the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cChanging the pediatric vaccine schedule based on no scientific input on safety risks and little transparency will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors, and will make America sicker,\u201d Cassidy wrote in an X post that also pointed to ongoing measles and whooping cough outbreaks.\n <\/p>\n