WASHINGTON — As the Trump administration moves ahead on what could be its most wide-reaching vaccine changes yet, the makers of the shots are weighing their options — and privately warning that officials could severely limit access to key vaccines and upend the childhood vaccine schedule for years to come.
U.S. health authorities, under the direction of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are considering how they might discourage or even ban vaccines that rely on a common ingredient to boost their effectiveness, or break up ones that protect against multiple diseases in a single shot.
If policymakers follow through on these ideas, vaccine makers could have to develop new alternatives to several key vaccines, a process that can take a decade or more and cost upwards of $1 billion, employees of vaccine makers said. The changes would impact a substantial share of the shots on the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule.
Should the administration seek rapid changes to vaccine ingredients, certain shots could become less available and protection against dangerous diseases that haven’t been a widespread threat in decades — including measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, and polio — could wither.
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