(NewsNation) — Health officials announced the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will recommend fewer childhood vaccines in the immunization schedule.
“President Trump directed us to examine how other developed nations protect their children and to take action if they are doing better,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.
Kennedy added that he and other administration officials said they were aligning the new recommendations closely with other countries such as Denmark, and pointed to decreased public trust in vaccines after the COVID-19 pandemic to inform their decision.
Here are the vaccines officials have taken off the schedule:
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Influenza
- Meningococcal disease
- Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
- Rotavirus
There are now only 11 vaccines on the childhood immunization schedule. Smaller groups of children and babies should get those vaccines only if they are at high risk or if a doctor recommends it.
What are doctors saying?
“The goal of this administration is to basically make vaccines optional,” Paul Offit, a former member of the advisory committee on vaccines for the FDA, told The Guardian. “And we’re paying the price.”
In December, a group of doctors, part of a news conference, warned children will die of otherwise preventable diseases with the federal guidance on Hepatitis B vaccines changing.
“My colleagues or I, not a committee member, will be the ones supporting the parents of a dying child and trying to explain how they were let down and lost a child from a preventable infection,” Dr. Aaron M. Milstone with the American Academy of Pediatrics told CIDRAP.
What does the government say?
In the past, Kennedy has claimed that vaccines today have not been properly studied or tested for safety before being given to Americans. However, he has maintained that he is not anti-vaccine, but “pro-science.”
“We’re going to make sure that every vaccine is tested for safety,” Kennedy told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo in July of last year.
His statements came amid the overhaul of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, a move met with criticism.
Health officials will continue to recommend several vaccines for children, including measles, mumps and rubella vaccines and those against polio, chickenpox and HPV. They also added the vaccines that are no longer recommended will still be covered by insurance if parents choose it for their children.
