US cuts broad recommendation for four childhood vaccines including flu, experts warn of risks

Public health experts warn the latest rollback could lead to preventable hospitalizations and deaths.

The action, which removes recommendations for rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease, and hepatitis A, states that parents should consult healthcare providers through a process it calls shared clinical decision-making.

It was approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Acting Director, Jim O’Neill, without the agency’s usual external expert review. It advances Kennedy’s campaign to pare back childhood vaccinations.

Trump said the new schedule was "rooted in the Gold Standard of Science" and aligns the United States with other developed nations. In a post on his Truth Social platform, the president congratulated Kennedy and other health officials on the change.

"Many Americans, especially the “MAHA Moms,” have been praying for these COMMON SENSE reforms for many years. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" he wrote, referring to Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement.

Kennedy, a prominent vaccine critic, has previously led efforts to drop universal recommendations for COVID-19 and hepatitis B shots for children, citing links to autism that scientists have repeatedly debunked.

Vaccine experts decried the changes they said put American children at risk.

Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said there should have been a public discussion of the risks and benefits of dropping the recommendations.

Dr. Sean O'Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that other developed countries face different disease risks and have different healthcare systems from those in the United States.

Unlike the US, which relies on private healthcare, most countries provide basic universal healthcare funded by the government.

"Any decision about the US childhood vaccination schedule should be grounded in evidence, transparency, and established scientific processes, not comparisons that overlook critical differences between countries or health systems," he said.

For the change in policy, two leading officials of the Department of Health and Human Services, Martin Kulldorff and Tracy Beth Hoeg, reviewed vaccine protocols in 20 other developed countries - all of which have universal healthcare - and made the recommendations to change the US schedule, the agency said.

In a report, HHS stated that the risk level varies by disease and child.

The vaccine schedules of the 20 reviewed countries show that the flu shot is recommended universally in four countries, and a hepatitis A vaccine is recommended universally only in Greece. The rotavirus vaccine is recommended for all children in 17 of the 20 countries, and meningococcal vaccines are recommended in 16.

Each of the four vaccines prevents diseases that once caused unnecessary hospitalizations and death in children, said Dr. Jesse Goodman, a Georgetown University professor and former FDA chief scientist.

Flu shots can help prevent pediatric deaths from flu, which killed 288 children in the 2024-25 season, according to the CDC. Hepatitis A, which infects the liver, usually resolves on its own but can lead to hospitalization and lifelong liver damage.

Rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhea and dehydration, used to send tens of thousands of children to the hospital each year, but vaccines have made this extremely rare, Goodman said.

While meningitis, a bacterial infection of the brain, is rare in children, some 15% of those infected do not respond to antibiotics and die, he said. "If you can safely prevent it, it makes total sense."

The updated recommendations maintain immunizations for 11 diseases, including measles, mumps, and varicella, while categorizing others as either targeted for high-risk groups or subject to shared decision-making, HHS said.

Insurance providers will continue to cover immunization costs regardless of category, senior HHS officials told reporters during a call.

The new schedule also recommends that US children receive a single dose of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, rather than a two-dose course. Recent studies have concluded that a single dose is not inferior to a longer course and have noted that the World Health Organization also supports a single-dose schedule.

Merck, which makes Gardasil, the only US-approved HPV vaccine, was not immediately available for comment. The drugmaker has said that, because there is insufficient data for the US FDA to license the shot as a single-dose regimen, the CDC's recommendations should align with the agency's approval.

Merck recorded $2.4 billion in US Gardasil sales in 2024.

The ministry warned that flu morbidity is rising and urged the public to get vaccinated as soon as possible. While the vaccine does not entirely prevent infection, it significantly reduces the risk of serious illness and related complications.

“The flu vaccine is available free of charge at all health maintenance organizations,” the ministry said in a statement.