CDC

Leading medical groups in the United States have raised alarm after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under President Donald Trump took the unprecedented step of cutting the number of vaccines it recommends for children.

Monday’s sweeping decision, which advances the agenda of Trump-appointed Secretary of Health Robert F Kennedy Jr, removes the recommendation for rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease and hepatitis A vaccines for children.

It comes as US vaccination rates have been slipping, and the rates of diseases that can be protected against with vaccines, such as measles and whooping cough, are rising across the country, according to government data.

“This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy said in a statement on Monday.

In response, the American Medical Association (AMA) said it was “deeply concerned by recent changes to the childhood immunisation schedule that affects the health and safety of millions of children”.

“Vaccination policy has long been guided by a rigorous, transparent scientific process grounded in decades of evidence showing that vaccines are safe, effective, and lifesaving,” Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, a doctor and AMA trustee, said in a statement posted on the group’s website.

She pointed out that major policy changes needed “careful review” and transparency, which are lacking in the CDD’s decision.

“When longstanding recommendations are altered without a robust, evidence-based process, it undermines public trust and puts children at unnecessary risk of preventable disease,” she said.

The change was effective immediately and carried out following the approval by another Trump appointee, CDC acting director Jim O’Neill, without the agency’s usual outside expert review.

The changes were made by political appointees, without any evidence that the current recommendations were harming children, Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said.

“It’s so important that any decision about the US childhood vaccination schedule should be grounded in evidence, transparency and established scientific processes, not comparisons that overlook critical differences between countries or health systems,” he told journalists.

Protections against those diseases are only recommended for certain groups deemed high risk, or when doctors recommend them in what’s called “shared decision-making”, the new CDC guidance stated.

States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren.

But CDC requirements often influence the state regulations, even as some states have begun creating their own alliances to counter the Trump administration’s guidance on vaccines.

Kennedy, the US health secretary, is a longtime vaccine sceptic.

In May, Kennedy announced that the CDC would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women, a move immediately questioned by public health experts who saw no new data to justify the change.

In June, Kennedy fired an entire 17-member CDC vaccine advisory committee, later installing several of his own replacements, including multiple vaccine sceptics.

In August, he announced that the US is to cut funding for mRNA vaccine development, a move health experts say is “dangerous” and could make the US much more vulnerable to future outbreaks of respiratory viruses like COVID-19.

Kennedy in November also personally directed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, without supplying any new evidence to support the change.

Trump, reacting to the latest CDC decision on his Truth Social platform, said the new schedule is “far more reasonable” and “finally aligns the United States with other Developed Nations around the World”.

Jan. 5 (UPI) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday announced that it is changing its childhood vaccination schedule to align with other developed nations.

The change, which is based on the vaccine practices in 20 “peer, developed nations,” most specifically Denmark, is aimed at reducing the number of vaccines and vaccine doses that children in the United States receive based on what officials at the Department of Health and Human Services say is too high a count of shots.

“After an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said in a press release.

“This decision protects children, respects families and rebuilds trust in public health,” he said.

The change was met with concern by a range of professional healthcare societies, including the American Association of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

“Today’s announcement by federal health officials to arbitrarilly stop recommending numerous routine childhood immunizations is dangerous and unnecessary,” Andrew D. Racine, president of the AAP, said in a statement.

“The longstanding, evidence-based approach that has guided the U.S. immunization review and recommendation process remains the best way to keep children healthy and protect against health complications and hospitalizations,” Racine said.

Kennedy has long been associated with anti-vaccine sentiments, including the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism and doubts expressed about COVID-19 vaccines that disregard study and real-world data.

Although he told Congress during his confirmation hearing in January 2025 that he is not anti-vaccine, since taking over the HHS he has canceled several vaccine research programs at the CDC and Food and Drug Administration and fired a wide range of experts who have long worked on vaccines and vaccine policy amid what he has said is an effort to rebuild citizens’ trust in government health agencies and the advice they offer.

Among Kennedy’s actions was firing all 17 members of a committee that makes recommendations about vaccines to the CDC and replacing them with a hand-picked selection of vaccine skeptics.

Kennedy last February said he was going to make investigating the benefits of the childhood vaccine schedule a priority, noting that he would take an “open mind” to what many consider “settled science” for vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B and other infectious diseases.

According to the HHS, the CDC will continue to recommend that all are children receive vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Haemophilus influenza B, pneumococcus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, HPV and chickenpox.

Vaccines that the agency is recommending for high-risk groups are RSV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, dengue and meningococcus.

And the CDC is now recommending that vaccines for rotavirus, COVID-19, influenza, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A and hepatitis B are given based on shared clinical decision-making.

The HHS and the CDC said the changes are based on the United States recommending more childhood vaccine doses than any other peer nation, and twice as many as some European nations, and that data is insufficient to suggest the formerly recommended shots are necessary.

The agencies also said that the new schedule allows for more flexibility and choice, with less coercion.

Experts have expressed doubt about the need or benefits for the changes, saying that there is not data to back up the changes and they will potentially lead to the spread of diseases that can be prevented.

Amesh Adalja, physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told UPI that the effect of the changes, which he called intentional, will be to decrease the uptake of certain vaccines in the United States and that there is no scientific justification for them.

“This will lead to predictable increases in illness, disruption, hospitalizations and — with certain infections — deaths,” Adalja said. “Individuals will be confused regarding what is actually recommended.”

He said that the burden on primary care doctors will increase as they not only help their patients navigate issues and decisions, but will likely increase the care that some people need.

“The decision was entirely arbitrary because some people ‘felt’ that the number of diseases vaccinated against was too high, akin to those who are afraid of the numbers 13 or 666,” Adalja said.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced a new California-led public health initiative, tapping former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials who publicly clashed with the Trump administration, including the former agency chief who warned that the nation’s public health system was headed to “a very dangerous place.”

Newsom said the initiative will be led by Dr. Susan Monarez, the former CDC director, and Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s former chief medical officer. The pair will lead the Public Health Network Innovation Exchange, or PHNIX, which the governor’s office said will “modernize public health infrastructure and maintain trust in science-driven decision-making.”

The initiative was created to improve the systems that detect and investigate public health trends and build a modern public-health backbone that connects data, technology and funding across states.

“The Public Health Network Innovation Exchange is expected to bring together the best science, the best tools, and the best minds to advance public health,” Newsom said in a statement Monday. “By bringing on expert scientific leaders to partner in this launch, we’re strengthening collaboration and laying the groundwork for a modern public health infrastructure that will offer trust and stability in scientific data not just across California, but nationally and globally.”

Monarez will serve as strategic health technology and funding advisor for the initiative, helping advance private sector partnerships to better integrate healthcare data systems and enable faster disease surveillance.

“I am deeply excited to bring my experience in health technology and innovation to support PHNIX,” Monarez said in a statement shared by Newsom’s office. “California has an extraordinary concentration of talent, technology, and investment, and this effort is about putting those strengths to work for the public good — modernizing how public health operates, accelerating innovation, and building a healthier, more resilient future for all Californians.”

Houry was named senior regional and global public health medical advisor for PHNIX. Newsom’s office also announced it will work with Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, founder and chief executive of Your Local Epidemiologist. Jetelina will advise the California Department of Public Health on building trust in public health.

Monarez and Houry both described extraordinary turmoil inside the nation’s health agencies during congressional hearings, telling senators in September that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and political advisors rebuffed data supporting the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Monarez was fired after just 29 days on the job. She said Kennedy told her to resign if she did not sign off on new unsupported vaccine recommendations. Kennedy has described Monarez as admitting to him that she is “untrustworthy,” a claim Monarez has denied through her attorney.

“Dramatic and unfounded changes in federal policy, funding, and scientific practice have created uncertainty and instability in public health and health care,” Dr. Erica Pan, CDPH director and state public health officer, said in a statement. “I am thrilled to work with these advisors to catalyze our efforts to lead a sustainable future for public health. California is stepping up to coordinate and build the scaffolding we need to navigate this moment.”

The salaries of the new positions were not immediately known.

Newsom’s office said the California initiative would build on previously announced public health partnerships, such as the West Coast Health Alliance.