Insurance will continue to cover all vaccinations for children.
The federal rollback caused outrage among doctors and health authorities, mainly because it came amid a particularly deadly flu season. The flu has killed 66 people in Massachusetts so far this season, including four children, double the number of deaths reported at this time last year.
The federal changes came without any new evidence casting doubt on the decades of data showing vaccines for children are safe and effective.
“The decision to change CDC’s childhood immunization schedule is reckless and deeply dangerous,” said Dr. Robbie Goldstein, the state public health commissioner, in a statement Wednesday. “It replaces decades of transparent, evidence-based guidance with uncertainty.”
The state’s announcement is the latest development in the growing rift between state and federal health officials during Kennedy’s tenure as secretary of health. Under his leadership, federal health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have pivoted their policies and recommendations away from established science to align with Kennedy’s antivaccine ideology. The health secretary packed a vaccine advisory committee with people who share his ideology and fired the former head of the CDC because, she has said, she wouldn’t rubber-stamp his directives.
In 2025, Kennedy and the agencies he led banned a preservative from vaccines despite evidence it did not cause harm, repeatedly suggested a link between vaccines and autism, a claim that has been debunked, and changed recommendations for infant hepatitis B vaccinations that health experts said would increase the risk of infections.
Public health leaders in several northeast states, including Massachusetts, felt they needed to intervene and announced they would begin ignoring federal recommendations and issuing their own vaccination guidelines.
Goldstein was a leader in forming the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, which also includes Connecticut, New Jersey, New York State, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, along with New York City. Over the past week, those states, along with 11 others, including New Hampshire, stated their childhood vaccine schedules would adhere to AAP recommendations, according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
“In Massachusetts, we will continue to lead with integrity, transparency, and an unshakeable commitment to protecting children’s health and well-being,” Goldstein said.
California, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii have also formed a public health alliance to counter new federal recommendations and are also following AAP guidelines, according to CIDRAP.
Public health experts and physicians have expressed concern that competing vaccine recommendations will confuse families, even in well-vaccinated states such as Massachusetts. It is necessary, though, for Massachusetts to stand up for evidence-based science, they said.
“These are life-saving vaccines for illnesses that used to create far more mortality and morbidity, far more illness and death, than they do at this point in history,” said Carlene Pavlos, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Alliance.
It does help minimize confusion, she said, that northeast states are speaking with a unified voice.
“It makes it clear that there is a consensus amongst those who are experts in both infectious disease and pediatric medicine,” Pavlos said.
Her organization has joined a group of national health organizations seeking to vacate Kennedy’s revamped childhood vaccine schedule. The petition also seeks to prevent the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee from holding its February meeting. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 13.
“Children’s health depends on vaccine recommendations based on rigorous, transparent science,” said Dr. Andrew D. Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a statement. “Unfortunately, recent decisions by federal officials have abandoned this standard, causing unnecessary confusion for families, compromising access to lifesaving vaccines, and weakening community protection.”
Jason Laughlin can be reached at jason.laughlin@globe.com. Follow him @jasmlaughlin.