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centers for disease control and prevention
'Reckless and Lawless': Trump Admin Overhauls Childhood Vaccine Schedule
"This ill-considered decision will sow further chaos and confusion and erode confidence in immunizations," warned the American Academy of Pediatrics president.
Jan 05, 2026
Leading US medical groups were among the critics who forcefully condemned the Trump administration's Monday overhaul of federal vaccine recommendations for every child in the country.
Doctors and public health advocates have been warning of such changes since the US Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nearly a year ago.
Last month, in a presidential memorandum, Trump directed Kennedy and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O'Neill, who is also acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "to review best practices from peer, developed countries for core childhood vaccination recommendations."
HHS said in a Monday statement that "after consulting with health ministries of peer nations, considering the assessment's findings, and reviewing the decision memo" presented by National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Food and Drug Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, O'Neill "formally accepted the recommendations and directed the CDC to move forward with implementation."
O'Neill claimed that "the data support a more focused schedule" and the HHS secretary said that "after an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the US childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent," but leading experts pushed back against their framing.
“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."
Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, an American Medical Association trustee, said in a statement that the AMA "is deeply concerned by recent changes to the childhood immunization 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."
“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," she continued. "When long-standing recommendations are altered without a robust, evidence-based process, it undermines public trust and puts children at unnecessary risk of preventable disease."
"The scientific evidence remains unchanged, and the AMA supports continued access to childhood immunizations recommended by national medical specialty societies," the doctor added. "We urge federal health leaders to recommit to a transparent, evidence-based process that puts children's health and safety first and reflects the realities of our nation's disease burden."
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) President Dr. Andrew D. Racine was similarly critical of the "dangerous and unnecessary" move, stressing that "the long-standing, evidence-based approach that has guided the US immunization review and recommendation process remains the best way to keep children healthy and protect against health complications and hospitalizations."
As Racine explained:
Said to be modeled in part after Denmark's approach, the new recommendations issued today by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer recommend routine immunization for many diseases with known impacts on America's children, such as hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), flu, and meningococcal disease. AAP continues to recommend that children be immunized against these diseases, and for good reason; thanks to widespread childhood immunizations, the United States has fewer pediatric hospitalizations and fewer children facing serious health challenges than we would without this community protection.
The United States is not Denmark, and there is no reason to impose the Danish immunization schedule on America's families. America is a unique country, and Denmark's population, public health infrastructure, and disease-risk differ greatly from our own.
At a time when parents, pediatricians, and the public are looking for clear guidance and accurate information, this ill-considered decision will sow further chaos and confusion and erode confidence in immunizations. This is no way to make our country healthier.
The doctor urged parents who "have questions about vaccines or anything else" to speak with their pediatricians and pledged that the AAP "will continue to stand up for children, just as we have done for the past 95 years."
Dr. Robert Steinbrook, Health Research Group director at the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen, also slammed Kennedy and his deputies for starting out "2026 by escalating and accelerating their mindless assault on the childhood and adolescent immunization schedule."
"Extreme and arbitrary changes to the childhood vaccination schedule without full public discussion and scientific and evidence-based vetting put children and families at risk and undermine public health," Steinbrook said. "The uncalled-for changes are likely to further erode trust in vaccines and decrease immunization rates, rather than increase confidence or boost vaccine uptake, as federal health officials assert. Once again, medical professional societies and states must act to prevent suffering and death from preventable diseases."
As the Associated Press noted Monday: "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."
Lawrence Gostin, founding chair of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law Georgetown University, predicted that "red states will mostly follow HHS guidance. Blue states will certainly keep the current schedule. We'll see a checkerboard of different rules across America. Infectious diseases will surge as pathogens don't respect state borders."
Ripping the CDC's move as "reckless and lawless," Gostin added that "RFK Jr. is plunging the nation into uncertainty and confusion. Will pharmacies and pediatricians offer vaccines without clear recommendations? Will insurers cover vaccines? Will school boards worry about liability? Needless hospitalizations and deaths are all but certain to occur."
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'A Tragedy in the Making': CDC Panel Votes to Adjust Hepatitis B Vaccine Policy for Newborns
"This unfounded change to the childhood vaccine schedule will only lead to entirely preventable disease outbreaks in the years ahead," said the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
Dec 05, 2025
Sen. Bernie Sanders, ranking member of the top US Senate committee on public health, demanded on Friday that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explain to lawmakers why experts he convened had scrapped a policy that one academic recently called "one of the most significant public health achievements in US child health over the past several decades."
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), said Sanders, "in strong disagreement with the medical and scientific community, voted to end a decades-long recommendation that newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine. This vaccine saves lives."
Since 1991, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adopted a policy of recommending the hepatitis B vaccine for all newborn babies in the US, the number of children who test positive for the disease has plummeted by 99%, from nearly 20,000 annually to the single or low-double digits.
On Friday, ACIP—whose 17 previous members were all fired and replaced by Kennedy—voted to potentially erase that progress, which, as Kelly Gebo, dean of the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, said this week, has "prevented tens of thousands of deaths, and remains a safe, effective, and essential measure."
The panel voted 8-3 that women who test negative for hepatitis B should work with their healthcare provider to decide "when and if" their children will be vaccinated against the virus, which causes an infection of the liver and can be transmitted through blood or other bodily fluids. The disease can cause a chronic infection and eventually lead to cirrhosis, liver failure, or liver cancer.
Under the new guidance, parents will be advised to “consider vaccine benefits, vaccine risks, and infection risks” and administer the shot at two months of age at the earliest.
At Stat News, Helen Branswell noted that while the revised policy, as stated, is only a recommendation in cases of a pregnant person who is at low risk for hepatitis B, the across-the-board recommendation helped ensure babies would not slip "through the safety net meant to protect them against infection at birth."
"All pregnant people are supposed to be tested for hepatitis B during pregnancy," wrote Branswell. "But testing doesn’t always occur, some test results are faulty, and some pregnant people become infected later in pregnancy, after being tested."
The ACIP members who voted to change the policy repeated claims made by Kennedy throughout the debate—that babies in general are at low risk and that hepatitis largely affects sex workers, drug users, and people from countries with high hepatitis B rates.
But critics of the decision said it will place unvaccinated infants at risk of being exposed to the virus, especially since as many as 70% of the roughly 2 million Americans who have hepatitis B are not aware of their diagnosis.
James Campbell, vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ infectious diseases committee, told Stat News about a 15-year-old girl he cared for who had not been vaccinated against hepatitis B in infancy because she was not believed to be at risk. She developed a chronic infection and ultimately died after two failed liver transplants.
“This is a very dangerous decision. It will certainly cause harm,” Campbell told Stat News.
Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen added that the vote is a "tragedy in the making."
In Massachusetts, Democratic Gov. Maura Healey indicated she plans to take action to circumvent ACIP's new guidelines and ensure parents are given the data about hepatitis B infection and the benefits and safety of the vaccine that's been recommended for more than three decades.
"RFK, that panel, they are not doing their jobs," Healey told CNN on Thursday night, ahead of the vote. "And in the face of that, as governor, I'm going to do mine, which is to take actions to make available science-based information. To give people real truth, real information, not conspiracy theories or ideologies, and we're going to continue to make available vaccines that people want."
Kennedy has spread misinformation about the measles vaccine and angered senators from both sides of the aisle earlier this year when the Food and Drug Administration, under his leadership, limited access to Covid-19 vaccines—leading Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to accuse him of "denying people vaccine" after Kennedy had pledged he would not restrict Americans' ability to be immunized.
Cassidy, a physician, grilled Kennedy during his confirmation hearing about his plans for vaccine policies—but ultimately voted in favor of his confirmation.
On Friday, Cassidy said ACIP's new recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine was "a mistake" and urged CDC Director Jim O'Neill to retain "the current, evidence-based approach."
But Charles Idelson, former communications strategist at National Nurses United, said Cassidy and the other senators who voted to confirm Kennedy to serve as the nation's top health official "own him."
"If you had the political courage to back up this position," said Idelson, "you would surely now call for Kennedy to resign for his lies to you, for his malfeasance, for his reckless advocacy of conspiracy theories, and for endangering the health of all Americans."
On Friday, Aaron Siri, a lawyer who specializes in vaccine injury cases, was scheduled to present to ACIP regarding the broader childhood vaccine schedule and potential changes to recommendations.
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'It's a Disaster': Medical Experts Horrified by Trump Administration 'Friday Night Massacre' at CDC
"Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity," warned one expert. "We won't recover."
Oct 11, 2025
The Trump administration has carried out mass layoffs of federal public health officials that experts warn will leave the US dangerously unprepared to handle disease outbreaks.
As reported by The New York Times, the layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) carried out on Friday night were deep and wide-ranging, and included employees and leaders "in offices addressing respiratory diseases, chronic diseases, injury prevention, and global health."
The administration laid off the entire CDC office in Washington, DC, as well as the staff of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication founded in 1930 that has been credited with the first reporting in medical literature on the disease that would come to be known as AIDS in 1981.
In addition to this, several dozen Epidemic Intelligence Service officers, commonly known as "disease detectives" who track outbreaks across the world, received their termination notices.
Dr. Jeremy Foust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, reported in a post on his personal Substack newsletter that CDC insiders are estimating that "between 1,100 and 1,300 employees are being cut" by the Trump administration.
Other public health experts reacted with horror to news of the terminations.
Dr. Catharine Young, a senior fellow at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, described the layoffs as a "Friday night massacre" and warned of severe repercussions for both US citizens and the entire world.
"This isn’t streamlining the government—it’s dismantling our ability to detect and respond to outbreaks before they spread," she wrote in a post on X. "You can’t cut your way to safety."
Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a US-born virologist who works at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, wrote that the CDC "is being eviscerated right now" and painted a dire picture of what that means for public health.
"America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight," she explained on Bluesky. "Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover."
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a physician and politician who is running to be the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Michigan, said that the layoffs made it much more likely that deadly diseases such as the ebola virus would spread unchecked.
"10 years ago, Ebola ravaged through Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—it made landfall here," he wrote on X. "Ebola is spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo right now. What stands between us and Ebola if it keeps spreading? The folks at CDC who [President Donald] Trump and [Office of Management and Budget Director Russell] Vought are using this shutdown to eliminate. Dumb shit."
Dr. Michelle Au, an anesthesiologist and Democratic Georgia state representative, noted that the CDC layoffs come as the US "is now barreling into respiratory season—when viruses like flu, COVID, and RSV surge—flying blind."
"It’s always harder to build things than to break them," she observed. "And breathtakingly easy to destroy the things you don’t value, let alone understand."
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