The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised the childhood vaccine schedule on Monday to recommend vaccines for 11 diseases, instead of 17, one of the most dramatic changes in vaccine policy under the administration of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic.
Key facts
CDC will limit recommendations for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B to only children at high risk for infection.
Flu, COVID-19 and rotavirus vaccines should be administered only after consulting with a healthcare provider, according to the new recommendations.
The schedule still includes vaccines for all children against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox and HPV, among other diseases.
The recommendations were based on a “comprehensive scientific evaluation of U.S. childhood immunization practices, following a directive from President Trump to review best practices from developed and peer countries,” HHS said in a news release, specifically highlighting Denmark’s vaccine schedule.
Some experts said it’s unclear how the CDC made the decision, suggesting the process may have violated federal guidelines: “Agencies must conduct a rigorous process and base these types of important policy decisions on evidence,” Richard H. Hughes IV, a lawyer who teaches vaccine law at George Washington University, told the New York Times, noting that agencies are prohibited from acting “arbitrarily and capriciously.”
Experts have also noted that vaccine schedules are country-specific depending on the availability of healthcare and the prevalence of certain diseases. Many developed countries in Europe, for example, offer universal healthcare.
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All CDC-recommended vaccines in all three categories (Immunizations Recommended for All Children, Immunizations Recommended for High-Risk Groups or Populations, and Immunizations Based on Shared Clinical Decisions) will continue to be covered by insurance, according to HHS.
Chief Critic
“The best case scenario is that nothing changes,” Cleveland Public Health Director Dr. David Margolius told NBC News. “The worst case scenario is that this causes more confusion, more distrust, lower vaccination rates, and that ideologies and political parties determine which vaccines people should receive.”
Key context
The new schedule will serve as a recommendation for states, which determine the vaccines required for children to attend school and child care, although they have historically relied on federal guidance. The change follows Kennedy’s efforts to reduce the number of vaccines children receive. The CDC revoked its recommendation that all newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours last year and revoked its recommendation that healthy children and pregnant women receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The latest recommendations were made following a directive from President Donald Trump to review the vaccination schedule and align it with “developed and peer countries,” according to a memo issued in December, noting that Denmark recommends vaccines for 10 diseases, Japan 14 and Germany 15.
This article was originally published on Forbes US
