{"id":116948,"date":"2026-01-30T01:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T01:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116948\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T01:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T01:48:08","slug":"new-york-state-rejects-federal-vaccine-recommendations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116948\/","title":{"rendered":"New York State rejects federal vaccine recommendations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>State health officials announced Thursday they are\u00a0rejecting\u00a0federal recommendations to drop several vaccinations from the childhood immunization schedule, advising doctors to instead follow guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said\u00a0<a class=\"nd-link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsday.com\/news\/nation\/childhood-vaccine-schedule-trump-rfk-hhs-p12647\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">it would only recommend certain vaccines,<\/a> such as those for some forms of meningitis, hepatitis B and RSV, for children in high-risk groups. It was a decision embraced by the vaccine-skeptical community but condemned by many pediatricians and medical associations.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics <a class=\"nd-link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/publications.aap.org\/aapnews\/news\/34141\/AAP-s-2026-immunization-schedule-keeps-routine\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">announced vaccine guidelines<\/a>\u00a0that remained unchanged from 2025. It backs routine immunization for 18 diseases, including all of those removed by the CDC, which recommended 11 vaccines.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Recent changes to the CDC immunization schedule depart from longstanding scientific evidence and are unfounded and unreliable,&#8221; state Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a letter to doctors cosigned by New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse, dated Jan. 28.\u00a0&#8220;By contrast, the AAP childhood and adolescent immunization schedules continue to recommend immunizations based on rigorous research and the specific disease risks and health care delivery context in the U.S.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, did not immediately\u00a0respond to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n<p>The CDC guidelines continue to recommend measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus (HPV), and varicella (chickenpox) for all children.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald had <a class=\"nd-link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsday.com\/news\/health\/vaccinations-children-new-york-au9xcoml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">previously announced<\/a> the state would not alter its current school vaccination requirements, regardless of CDC recommendations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Most pediatricians will continue to follow guidance based on evidence,&#8221; said Dr. Asif Noor, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at NYU Langone-Long Island, noting that he and others have seen children get severely ill and die from diseases that can be prevented with vaccines that some believe should not be routine.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Meningococcal disease vaccine is a serious infection that can be prevented with a simple vaccination,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said there is also a high chance of infections for numerous diseases to spread quickly in a school if there is a group of children who have not been immunized.<\/p>\n<p>Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u00a0has openly voiced distrust of certain vaccines and has replaced members of federal advisory panels that oversee vaccination recommendations. The CDC&#8217;s vaccine advisory committee <a class=\"nd-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsday.com\/news\/nation\/childhood-vaccine-schedule-trump-rfk-hhs-p12647\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">head this month<\/a> questioned whether mandates are necessary for vaccines that protect against polio and other infectious diseases.<\/p>\n<p>Other groups of medical providers, such as the\u00a0American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the\u00a0American Medical Association have also endorsed the AAP guidelines.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Lisa L. Colangelo\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"88\" height=\"104\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769737688_982_image.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\tLisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State health officials announced Thursday they are\u00a0rejecting\u00a0federal recommendations to drop several vaccinations from the childhood immunization schedule, advising&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[39404,2953,9,11,10,49,51,50,40549,8017],"class_list":{"0":"post-116948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-child-and-teen-health","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-new-york-state","14":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-state-news","16":"tag-region-state","17":"tag-state-region"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}