Major U.S. medical organizations are on alert after President Donald Trump’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took the unprecedented step of reducing the number of vaccines it recommends for children.
Monday’s sweeping decision advances the agenda of President Trump-appointed Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to remove recommendations for rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease and hepatitis A vaccines for children.
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The move comes as vaccination rates in the U.S. are declining and rates of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and pertussis 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 Monday.
In response, the American Medical Association (AMA) said it was “deeply concerned by recent changes to the childhood immunization schedule that impact the health and safety of millions of children.”
“Vaccine policy has long been guided by a rigorous, transparent scientific process based on decades of evidence showing that vaccines are safe, effective and save lives,” said Sandra Adamson Freihofer, a physician and AMA board member, in a statement posted on the group’s website.
He said major policy changes require “careful consideration” and transparency, which the CDD decision lacked.
“When long-standing recommendations are changed without a robust evidence-based process, public trust is eroded and children are put at unnecessary risk of contracting preventable diseases,” she said.
The changes went into effect immediately and were approved by another Trump appointee, Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill, without the CDC’s usual outside expert review.
Sean O’Leary, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the changes were made by political appointees and there is no evidence that the current recommendations will harm children.
“It is critically important that any decisions about the U.S. childhood immunization schedule be made based on evidence, transparency, and established scientific processes, rather than comparisons that overlook important differences between countries and health systems,” he told reporters.
Precautions against these diseases are recommended only for certain groups considered to be at high risk or when a doctor recommends them in so-called “shared decision-making,” the CDC’s new guidance says.
States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for school children.
But the CDC’s requirements often influence state regulations, even as some states have begun forming their own coalitions to counter the Trump administration’s guidance on vaccines.
US Secretary of Health John Kennedy has long been a vaccine skeptic.
In May, President Kennedy announced that the CDC would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women, a move quickly questioned by public health experts who saw no new data to justify the change.
In June, President Kennedy fired all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee and later installed a number of his own replacements, including several vaccine skeptics.
In August, he announced that the US would cut funding for mRNA vaccine development, a move health experts say is “dangerous” and could make the US more vulnerable to future outbreaks of respiratory viruses like COVID-19.
President Kennedy also personally directed the CDC in November to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, without providing new evidence to support that change.
President Trump reacted to the CDC’s latest decision on his Truth Social platform, saying the new schedule is “much more reasonable” and “ultimately brings the United States in line with other developed countries around the world.”
