RFK Jr. reduces the number of vaccinations recommended for children
Federal health officials on Monday announced dramatic changes to vaccinations recommended for American children, reducing the number of diseases prevented by routine vaccinations from 17 to 11.
Jim O’Neill, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has updated the agency’s vaccination plan to reflect the changes, effective immediately, officials said at a news conference.
The announcement represents a momentous shift in federal vaccination policy and perhaps the most significant shift in public health practice yet by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary who has long sought to reduce the number of shots American children receive.
The authority to mandate vaccinations rests with states, not the federal government. But CDC recommendations have a big impact on state regulations. Mr. Kennedy and his appointees have made other changes to the childhood vaccination schedule, but these have had a smaller impact.
The new schedule bypasses the detailed and methodical evidence-based process that has underpinned vaccination recommendations in the country for decades. Previously, a federal panel of independent advisers typically reviewed the scientific data for each new vaccine, as well as when and how it would be administered to children, before making recommendations.
Public health experts expressed outrage at the sweeping revisions, saying federal officials failed to provide evidence supporting the changes or consider input from vaccine experts.
“The abrupt change to the entire U.S. childhood immunization schedule is alarming, unnecessary and will endanger the health of children in the United States,” said Dr. Helen Chu, a physician and immunologist at the University of Washington in Seattle and a former member of the Federal Vaccine Advisory Committee.
Dr. Chu also contradicted health officials’ assertion that the move would boost confidence in vaccines and increase vaccination rates. It will have the opposite effect, she warned.
“Parents are already worried about what they hear in the news about vaccine safety, and that will increase confusion and reduce vaccine acceptance,” Dr. Chu.
Distrust of vaccines has already led to a steady decline in vaccination rates and a resurgence of preventable diseases such as measles and whooping cough, or whooping cough. In 2025, the United States recorded more cases of measles than at any time since 1993.
Later this month, the country could lose its official measles elimination status, which it has held since 2000.
“Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly clear that we can no longer trust the leadership of our federal government when it comes to credible information about vaccines, and that is a tragedy that will cause unnecessary suffering,” Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the Infectious Diseases Committee at the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The pediatric academy “will continue to publish evidence-based vaccination plans that focus on the well-being of Americans and are not based on a political agenda,” he said. The academy is suing the Department of Health and Human Services after it cut off $12 million in grants to the organization for child health programs.
The CDC’s new schedule still recommends vaccinations against some diseases, including measles, polio and whooping cough, for all children.
Vaccination against six other diseases – hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal disease, rotavirus, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, the leading cause of hospitalization in American infants – is recommended only for some high-risk groups or after consultation with a health care provider.
In September, a federal committee of vaccination advisors also recommended that vaccinations against Covid-19 only be carried out after consultation with a health care provider.
