Federal health officials on Monday, under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced a broad, unprecedented revision of national vaccine guidance, abruptly cutting the number of routinely recommended childhood immunizations from 17 to 11.
Officials said the change is intended to align U.S. vaccine guidance more closely with other high-income nations, notably Denmark — a much smaller, less diverse country of roughly 6 million people (fewer than New York City) with universal health care. They also argued the update is needed to respond to declining public confidence in vaccinations, a drop they attribute in part to anti-vaccine campaigners, including Kennedy.
“This move protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy said in a statement.
Health experts pushed back. “Kennedy’s choice will harm and even kill children, as his other anti-vaccination policies have,” virologist James Alwine of Defend Public Health said in a statement.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, a frequent critic of Kennedy, denounced the revisions, saying “to arbitrarily stop recommending numerous routine childhood immunizations is dangerous and unnecessary,” AAP President Andrew Racine said. “The United States is not Denmark,” he added.
Under the revised federal guidance, universally recommended vaccines are limited to these 11 diseases: measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus (HPV), and varicella (chickenpox).
