CDC Makes Major Childhood Vaccine Changes: What To Know In PA

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took the unprecedented step Monday of dropping the number of vaccines it recommends for every child, adopting a policy that gives Pennsylvania parents choice but very little guidance.

It's the latest anti-vaccine push from a Trump administration that has installed one of the nation's foremost vaccine conspiracy theorists, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as Secretary of Health.

Officials said the changes won't result in families losing access or insurance coverage for vaccines. But medical experts slammed the move, saying it could lead to reduced uptake of important vaccinations and increase disease.

The new vaccine schedule, which is similar to Denmark’s, recommends children get vaccines for 11 diseases, compared with the 18 the CDC previously recommended.

The changes, which officials acknowledged were made without input from the advisory committee that typically consults on the vaccine schedule, are effective immediately.

Since the new guidance is simply a federal recommendation, it will not change existing state law. In Pennsylvania, state law requires all students entering 7th grade to have vaccines for DTaP, polio, Hepatitis B, varicella, Tdap, MMR, and meningococcal disease. A second meningococcal vaccine is required ahead of 12th grade.

The federal change came after President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in December to review how peer nations approach vaccine recommendations and consider revising its guidance to align with theirs.

HHS said its comparison to 20 peer nations found that the U.S. was an "outlier" in both the number of vaccinations and the number of doses it recommended to all children. Officials with the agency framed the change as a way to increase public trust by recommending only the most important vaccinations for children to receive.

“This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy Jr. said in a statement Monday.

Medical experts disagreed, saying the change without public discussion or a transparent review of the data would put children at risk.

“Abandoning recommendations for vaccines that prevent influenza, hepatitis and rotavirus, and changing the recommendation for HPV without a public process to weigh the risks and benefits, will lead to more hospitalizations and preventable deaths among American children,” said Michael Osterholm of the Vaccine Integrity Project, based at the University of Minnesota.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.