Food and Drug Administration

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.

Dec. 18 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new regulations on Thursday that restrict the ability for transgender minors to access gender-affirming healthcare.

The regulations work to “carry out President Trump’s executive order directing HHS to end the practice of sex-rejecting procedures on children that expose young people to irreversible harm,” a press release said.

The new rules will ban hospitals from “performing sex-rejecting procedures on children under age 18 as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs.”

“These actions will ensure that the federal government in no way funds directly gender transition procedures on minors and also does not fund facilities that perform these procedures,” a department official told reporters Thursday.

The department said what it calls “sex-rejecting procedures” on children, including puberty blockers, hormones and surgery, “expose them to irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other irreversible physiological effects.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other department officials will offer details about the moves later Thursday.

Gender-affirming care is a holistic approach to treating gender-dysphoria and is supported by every major medical association as treatment for both adults and children.

It includes a range of therapies, from psychological and behavioral to medical interventions, with surgeries for minors being exceedingly rare.

The medical practice, however, has been a target for conservatives for years amid a larger campaign that civil rights organizations see as a threat to the rights of LGBTQ Americans.

St. Louis pediatrician Dr. Kenneth Haller called HHS’ actions “anti-science” during a Human Rights Campaign press briefing. He pointed out that these efforts still allow the treatments for children with other conditions that affect hormone production.

Haller said that as long as the condition doesn’t change a child’s gender, “these people don’t have a problem with [prescribing hormones]. That same care for kids who are transgender is what they say is wrong. There’s no science behind it.”

HHS said the Food and Drug Administration would send warning letters to manufacturers and sellers of breast binders for minors alleging they are doing illegal marketing, the department official said.

“Illegal marketing of these products for children is alarming, and the FDA will take further enforcement action such as import alerts, seizures, and injunctions if it continues,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said in a statement.

The Human Rights Campaign said these rules infringe on the rights of families.

“Families deserve the freedom to go to the doctor and get the care that they need and to have agency over the health and wellbeing of their children,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, in a statement. “But these proposed actions would put [President] Donald Trump and RFK Jr. in those doctor’s offices, ripping healthcare decisions from the hands of families and putting it in the grips of the anti-LGBTQ+ fringe.”

And Advocates for Trans Equality told UPI in an emailed statement that are a “discriminatory attack” that lacks credible medical or financial basis.

“These sets of rules mark a serious escalation in this administration’s ongoing efforts to dismantle healthcare programs and services for trans youth,” Fiadh McKenna, A4TE senior staff attorney, said in the statement.

“Targeting healthcare for trans people is unlawful and discriminatory; no one should be denied healthcare because of who they are.”

The new CMS rules will be finalized after a 60-day comment period on the Federal Register, the department official said.

Trump has issued several executive orders against transgender people. In May, the Pentagon began removing transgender service members from the military. In March, the Department of Veterans Affairs began phasing out medical treatments for gender dysphoria. In February, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women from participating in women’s sports. In January, Trump signed an executive order that restricts gender-affirming care for minors.