Washington D.C. – In its latest attack on public health,today the Trump-RFK Jr. CDC followed through with the administration’s threats to dramatically reduce the number of recommended vaccines for American children to 11, down from 17, effective immediately. Shots “including those against rotavirus, influenza and hepatitis A” can now only be administered to children “after consultation with a health care provider.” As the New York Times reported: “It is unclear what evidence led to these decisions, said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who led the C.D.C. center that oversaw vaccine policy before he resigned in August.” The Times added: The childhood schedule now closely resembles that of Denmark, a country with free health care and a population about 2 percent of that of the United States.
As former Commissioner of the FDA, Doctor Scott Gottlieb warned: “We’re going to have to build new pediatric hospitals” if we switch to [the] Danish immunization schedule, because so many more kids will become seriously ill.
Public Health Watch, a project of Protect Our Care, condemned the radical shift from long-standing, well-founded policy that will needlessly put American children at greater risk of preventable diseases. The policy was motivated entirely by political whims and conspiracy theories, not peer-reviewed science. How do we know? In August, anti-vax HHS Secretary Kennedy disinvited half a dozen of the nation’s top medical organizations out of the workgroups for the administration’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
“Donald Trump and Secretary Kennedy have long embraced unfounded anti-vax conspiracies and debunked propaganda, and now they’ve weaponized their dangerous views against American kids,” said Kayla Hancock, Director of Public Health Watch, a project of Protect Our Care. “RFK Jr’s contempt for peer-reviewed science showing these vaccines are safe and effective has been turned into harmful action, and it’s no hyperbole to say innocent children could die as a direct result. This radical policy shift designed to leave young children more vulnerable to preventable diseases was motivated by politics and nothing more. It had no apparent backing or input from the legitimate medical community. In fact leading medical experts on vaccines were banned from planning discussions so RFK Jr’s hand-picked advisors and vaccine deniers could scheme behind closed doors without any check or balance involving credible data or science.
“This policy shift comes amid a worsening measles outbreak in South Carolina, which brought the national number of infections to over 2,000 people in 2025, including at least three deaths ,” added Hancock. “Most of these confirmed cases involved children who were not vaccinated, thanks in large measure to Secretary Kennedy who has used his national platform to spread debunked lies about the measles vaccine. For Kennedy to now roll back other vaccine recommendations will have the same chilling effect on many parents who will be left confused about whether these vaccines are safe and effective, when the science and data has shown time and again that they are.”
Among the key medical groups Kennedy shut out from the vaccine working groups last August was the American College of Physicians, which laid out why the expected Trump administration policy shift on the vaccine schedule is a fool’s errand.
As The 19th reported: Dr. Jason M. Goldman, president of the American College of Physicians, said … the United States trying to replicate Denmark is like comparing apples to oranges.: “You’re looking at a population smaller than New York. You’re looking at a universal health care system where everyone has access to care. You’re looking at a different homogeneity versus [the] United States: We have more people, more diversity. We do not have universal health care. We do not have the same level of access.”
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