Health experts criticize Trump administration’s slashing of childhood vaccination recommendations

On Monday morning, Spokane Regional Health District immunization coordinator Kayla Myers learned that the United States’ longstanding vaccine guidance for children had drastically changed.

The change removes vaccine recommendations for a handful of diseases, including rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease and hepatitis A, hepatitis B and some forms of meningitis. It comes amid Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial push to reduce the number of childhood vaccinations.

President Donald Trump urged the country last month to “align with other developed nations” by reducing the number of shots for children, Reuters news service reported. In all, the new guidance pares the number of recommended childhood vaccines from 18 to 11.

Public health experts for months have warned that easing vaccine recommendations for children could lead to more illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths.

Myers is still processing the news and said it’s hard to determine whether the change, approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s acting director Jim O’Neill, is good or bad. The approval was done without an outside expert review, which would typically be done before a finalized recommendation is released to the public, Myers said.

She said the lack of transparency is concerning, especially when comparing less populated countries with different health care systems, such as Denmark. In 2024, Denmark was home to nearly 6 million people, while the U.S. boasts a population of more than 342 million.

“It just seems like oranges and apples,” Myers said, “when you take another country’s vaccine schedule and try to implement it into one that doesn’t have the same safety net, insurance or health care set up. It will be interesting to see how they navigate those issues.”

The changes also include language saying parents should consult health care providers under shared clinical-decision-making, according to Reuters. The new recommendation is that children in the U.S. receive a single dose of the HPV vaccine instead of the two-dose course previously recommended. The World Health Organization also backs a single-dose schedule.

“I would say it seems like a very shortsighted decision for an entire country,” Myers said.

“Any change to the immunization schedule would normally run through an advisory committee and immunization practices meeting so that we would have full transparency, see the data and the science behind it, and allow for public comment. None of that occurred. We’re learning about this decision just like you are,” Myers said.

According to the CDC, flu shots help prevent pediatric deaths from flu, which killed 288 children in the 2024-25 season. Hepatitis A usually resolves on its own, but can result in hospitalization and long-term liver damage. Meningitis, a bacterial infection in the brain, kills 15% of the children infected by it. Rotavirus causes severe dehydration and diarrhea, which used to send tens of thousands of children to hospitals every year before the vaccine was created.

Other countries face different disease risks and have different insurance and health care systems. Denmark uses a universal health care system to provide tax-funded coverage for all residents, which allows for free access to primary care, hospitals and mental health services. The United States depends on private health care.

Trump called the new vaccine recommendation “rooted in the Gold Standard of Science” and congratulated Kennedy on the change, in a Truth Social platform post. Kennedy has historically been critical of vaccines and has previously led efforts to drop recommendations for COVID-19 and hepatitis B shots for children. He claimed that vaccines are linked to autism – a claim scientists have repeatedly debunked.

“The ‘MAHA Moms,’ have been praying for these COMMON SENSE reforms for many years,” Trump wrote, referencing Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement.

Washington state has pushed back against Kennedy’s efforts to discredit vaccines and change federal guidelines. It has joined the West Coast Health Alliance to review the federal recommendations to ensure science supports them. The Washington State Department of Health will then decide if any vaccine guidance changes will occur in Washington state.

Spokane Public Schools will continue to follow the guidance of the Washington Department of Health, district spokesperson Ryan Lancaster wrote in response to questions from The Spokesman-Review.

“It’s nice that we have an extra layer of review to make sure that we are adopting evidence-based and scientifically reviewed changes to the immunization schedule,” Myers said.

Reuters contributed to this report.