What's happened
On January 5-6, 2026, the US CDC, under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and acting director Jim O’Neill, drastically reduced the number of vaccines routinely recommended for all children from 18 diseases to 11. Vaccines for hepatitis A, B, influenza, meningitis, RSV, and rotavirus are now recommended only for high-risk groups or via shared clinical decision-making. The move, aligned with President Trump’s directive to match European schedules, bypassed usual expert review and drew widespread criticism from medical groups and public health experts.
What's behind the headline?
Political Influence Over Public Health Policy
The recent overhaul of the US childhood vaccination schedule represents a significant politicization of public health policy. The changes were implemented without the CDC’s usual transparent, evidence-based advisory process, instead reflecting the agenda of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time vaccine skeptic appointed by President Trump. This shift undermines decades of scientific consensus and expert guidance.
Risks of Reduced Vaccine Recommendations
By limiting routine vaccine recommendations to 11 diseases and relegating others to high-risk groups or shared decision-making, the policy risks lowering vaccination rates. Shared decision-making, while patient-centered, is time-consuming and may discourage uptake. Experts warn this will likely increase preventable illnesses such as influenza, rotavirus, and meningitis, diseases previously controlled by universal vaccination.
Questionable International Comparisons
The administration justifies the changes by citing alignment with European countries like Denmark. However, experts highlight that Denmark’s smaller, less diverse population and universal healthcare system differ markedly from the US, making direct comparisons inappropriate. The US faces higher disease risks and different healthcare access challenges.
Impact on Public Trust and Vaccine Coverage
The abrupt policy shift, lacking scientific transparency, threatens to erode public trust in vaccines and public health institutions. This comes amid already declining vaccination rates and rising outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases in the US. The changes may exacerbate these trends, reversing public health gains.
Legal and Institutional Challenges
The firing of the CDC’s 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and its replacement with Kennedy-aligned members raises legal questions about committee balance and influence. Lawsuits seek to invalidate decisions made by the reconstituted panel, highlighting institutional resistance to politicized vaccine policy.
Forecast
Unless reversed, these policy changes will likely lead to increased vaccine hesitancy, lower immunization coverage, and higher incidence of preventable diseases in US children. The discord between federal recommendations and those of professional medical organizations may confuse parents and providers, further complicating public health efforts.
What the papers say
The New York Times’ Maggie Astor reports that the CDC no longer recommends vaccines for hepatitis A, B, influenza, meningitis, RSV, and rotavirus for all children, limiting them to high-risk groups or shared decision-making, a move intended to align with Denmark’s schedule but criticized as inappropriate for the US context. AP News and The Independent highlight President Trump’s role in pushing the reduction, noting his misleading claim about "72 jabs" and the reduction to about 23 injections from previously closer to three dozen. Al Jazeera details the immediate implementation of the changes without usual expert review and quotes the American Medical Association’s concern over the lack of transparency and evidence. Ars Technica’s Beth Mole underscores the political motivations and the firing of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, warning of harm to children and public trust. The Independent’s Nate Raymond covers the legal challenge against the reconstituted advisory panel, emphasizing the potential invalidation of recent vaccine policy decisions. France 24 and other sources provide expert warnings about increased risks of preventable diseases and criticize the flawed international comparisons used to justify the changes. Together, these sources reveal a contentious policy shift driven by political appointees, opposed by medical experts and professional organizations, with significant implications for US public health.
How we got here
The US childhood vaccine schedule, developed over decades by expert panels, traditionally recommended immunizations against 18 diseases. In late 2025, President Trump directed Health Secretary Kennedy to align US vaccine recommendations with those of peer European countries, notably Denmark. Kennedy, a known vaccine skeptic, has since reshaped vaccine policy, including firing the CDC’s advisory committee and removing broad COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women.
Go deeper
- Why did the US reduce routine childhood vaccine recommendations?
- What are the risks of the new vaccine schedule?
- How have medical experts responded to these changes?
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More on these topics
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Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
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Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. (born January 17, 1954), also known by his initials RFK Jr., is an American politician, environmental lawyer, author, conspiracy theorist, and anti-vaccine activist serving as the 26th United States secretary of health and human
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a national public health institute in the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
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The United States Department of Health & Human Services, also known as the Health Department, is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential
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For other uses of the word dementia, see Dementia (disambiguation).
Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform everyday...
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund Strait.
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Martin Kulldorff, is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a biostatistician and epidemiologist at the Brigham and Women's Hospital.
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Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. Denmark proper, which is the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries, consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being
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The United States of America, commonly known as the United States or America, is a country mostly located in central North America, between Canada and Mexico.