US cuts the number of vaccines recommended for every child, a move
slammed by physicians
[January 06, 2026]
By ALI SWENSON and LAURAN NEERGAARD
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. took the unprecedented step Monday of cutting
the number of vaccines it recommends for every child — a move that
leading medical groups said would undermine protections against a
half-dozen diseases.
The change is effective immediately, meaning that the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention will now recommend that all children get
vaccinated against 11 diseases. What's no longer broadly recommended is
protection against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms
of meningitis or RSV. Instead, 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.”
Trump administration officials said the overhaul, a move long sought by
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., won't result in families who
want the vaccines losing access to them, and said insurance will
continue to pay. But medical experts said the decision creates confusion
for parents and could increase preventable diseases.
States, not the federal government, have the authority to require
vaccinations for schoolchildren. While CDC requirements often influence
those state regulations, some states have begun creating their own
alliances to counter the Trump administration’s guidance on vaccines.
The change comes as U.S. vaccination rates have been slipping and the
share of children with exemptions has reached an all-time high,
according to federal data. At the same time, rates of diseases that can
be protected against with vaccines, such as measles and whooping cough,
are rising across the country.
Review came at the request of President Trump
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the overhaul was
in response to a request from President Donald Trump in December. Trump
asked the agency to review how peer nations approach vaccine
recommendations and consider revising U.S. guidance accordingly.
HHS said its comparison to 20 peer nations found that the U.S. was an
“outlier” in both the number of vaccinations and the number of doses it
recommended to all children. Officials with the agency framed the change
as a way to increase public trust by recommending only the most
important vaccinations for children to receive.
“This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust
in public health,” Kennedy said in a statement Monday.
Trump, reacting to the news 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.”
Among those left on the recommended-for-everyone list are vaccines
against measles, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, chickenpox and human
papillomavirus, or HPV. The guidance reduces the number of recommended
vaccine doses against HPV from two or three shots depending on age to
one for most children.
Medical experts said Monday's changes without what they said was public
discussion or a transparent review of the data would put children at
risk.
“Abandoning recommendations for vaccines that prevent influenza,
hepatitis and rotavirus, and changing the recommendation for HPV without
a public process to weigh the risks and benefits, will lead to more
hospitalizations and preventable deaths among American children,” said
Michael Osterholm of the Vaccine Integrity Project, based at the
University of Minnesota.
Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics said countries
carefully consider vaccine recommendations based on levels of disease in
their populations and their health systems.
“You can’t just copy and paste public health and that’s what they seem
to be doing here,” said O’Leary. “Literally children's health and
children's lives are at stake.”
Most high-income countries recommend vaccinations against a dozen to 15
serious pathogens, according to a recent review by the Vaccine Integrity
Project, a group that works to safeguard vaccine use.
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A certified medical assistant holds a syringe for a flu vaccine at a
clinic in Seattle, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey
Wasson, File)
 France today recommends all children
get vaccinated against 14 diseases, compared to the 11 that the U.S.
now will recommend for every child under the new schedule.
Doctors' groups criticize decision
The changes were made by political appointees, without any evidence
that the current recommendations were harming children, O'Leary
said.
The pediatricians' group has issued its own childhood vaccine
schedule that its members are following, and it continues to broadly
recommend vaccines that the Trump administration demoted.
O'Leary singled out the flu vaccine, which the government and
leading medical experts have long urged for nearly everyone starting
at age 6 months. He said the government is “pretty tone deaf” for
ending its recommendation while the country is at the beginning of a
severe flu season, and after 280 children died from flu last winter,
the most since 2009.
Even a disease that parents may not have heard of, rotavirus, could
come roaring back if vaccination erodes, he added. That diarrheal
disease once hospitalized thousands of children each winter,
something that no longer happens.
The decision was made without input from an advisory committee that
typically consults on the vaccine schedule, said senior officials at
HHS. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they
weren’t authorized to discuss the changes publicly.
The officials added that the new recommendations were a
collaborative effort between federal health agencies but wouldn’t
specify who was consulted.
Scientists at the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and
Respiratory Diseases were asked to present to the agency’s political
leadership about vaccine schedules in other countries in December,
but they were not allowed to give any recommendations and were not
aware of any decisions about vaccine schedule changes, said Abby
Tighe, executive director of the National Public Health Coalition,
an advocacy organization of current and former CDC employees and
their supporters.
“Changes of this magnitude require careful review, expert and public
input, and clear scientific justification. That level of rigor and
transparency was not part of this decision,” said Dr. Sandra
Fryhofer, of the American Medical Association. “The scientific
evidence remains unchanged, and the AMA supports continued access to
childhood immunizations recommended by national medical specialty
societies.”
Kennedy is a longtime vaccine skeptic
The move comes as Kennedy, a longtime activist against vaccines, has
repeatedly used his authority in government to translate his
skepticism about the shots into national guidance.
In May, Kennedy announced 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 skeptics.
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.
___
Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writer Mike Stobbe
contributed to this report.
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