The federal move to no longer recommend certain vaccines for all U.S. children is not supported by new evidence and could undermine health gains.
The Trump administration has made its largest imprint on the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule to date. Among the changes, the government schedule demotes shots once universally recommended into a designation called “shared clinical decision making.
” The shift affects vaccines that protect against diseases such as hepatitis A, rotavirus and the flu. It may not sound like a big change, just a suggestion to have a conversation with a doctor. But “shared clinical decision making” has a specific meaning in terms of vaccines, implying that the benefit and risk calculation isn’t clear-cut, even though that isn’t the case with the shots classified. The change adds to the confusion and doubt that the current administration has injected into vaccine policy in the United States.“This is really uncharted territory,” says Jake Scott, an infectious diseases physician at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. “Moving these vaccines to shared decision making doesn’t reflect scientific uncertainty, but it manufactures it.” The changes, which the administration announced January 5, did not follow the long-standing protocol for considering updates to the U.S. childhood vaccination schedule. The traditional process of lengthy scientific review culminates in recommendations made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Without using that deliberate open process, “it’s really challenging to have confidence in any of the proposed changes,” says pediatric infectious diseases physician Lori Handy, associate director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. No new evidence was presented to back the reduction in universally recommended vaccines. These changes “are not made in the best interest of children because more children will inevitably get sick,” Handy says. Although the administration claims that the changes place the United States in consensus among peer nations’ vaccine schedules, “vaccine policy isn’t one-size-fits-all,” Scott says. “It has to account for how health care actually gets delivered in a given country,” including who has access, what the infrastructure looks like and where the gaps are, along with epidemiological differences between countries.from universally recommended to shared clinical decision making. That category is inappropriate for those vaccines, Scott says. It’s for situations in which “individual factors meaningfully shift the risk-benefit calculation” and the benefit to the population is uncertain. Handy says that the category covers circumstances in which medical and social risk factors “are so nuanced that it is challenging to make a clear routine recommendation.”ages 27 to 45 when considering the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine. The HPV shot is universally recommended for preteens because it’s most effective at preventing HPV-related cancers before exposure to the virus. Many adults have probably already encountered the virus. But an unvaccinated adult who has tested negative for HPV and is entering a new sexual relationship could have risk of a new exposure. In that case, an HPV vaccine would be protective. Shared clinical decision making is meant for occasions “where the risk-benefit calculation is close enough that individual factors could tip it either way,” Scott says. “But that’s not the case for any of these vaccines” that have been reclassified on the childhood immunization schedule. “Every vaccine moved to shared decision making has been through rigorous evaluation,” he says. “For every single one, the benefits have been shown to outweigh the risks.” And the evidence supports a universal recommendation. Here’s a closer look at several of the diseases for which the vaccines have been moved into shared clinical decision making.Hepatitis A is a highly contagious virus that spreads person-to-person or by consuming contaminated foods or drinks. “We know that our food supply is at risk for hepatitis A outbreaks,” Handy says. Having a shared decision making conversation about the risks of acquiring hepatitis A is basically asking someone if they are going to eat, she says. “That’s just not a practical conversation to have.” Hepatitis A causes liver disease that usually resolves but can lead to liver failure. Cases of hepatitis A have dropped substantially with the introduction of vaccination. In 1999, the shot was recommended to children living in states with the highest rate of new cases, and then recommended across the country in 2006. Children have routinely received a two-dose series between 12 and 23 months of age.. People can accept the risks of children eating a variety of foods “because we know they’re protected” from vaccination, Handy says, “and that’s only something you can do before they experience the risk.”for newborns. These infants could be exposed during birth or soon after and are at especially high risk of developing chronic hepatitis B, a disease with no cure that damages the liver and increases the risk of liver cancer. One in 4 children with chronic hepatitis B will die prematurely from complications of the disease. “All children are at risk of hepatitis B,” Handy says. The virus is very contagious “and we do not know who in the population has it.” But the universal birth dose recommendation was removed by the current administration in December. are unpredictable, and an infection can be deadly in just 48 hours. “It is such a devastating infection that we can prevent,” Handy says. Invasive meningococcal disease leads to meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, or sepsis, a blood infection. And theVaccination against meningococcal disease had been universally recommended for adolescents because this group is a key spreader of the bacteria. Any teen who gathers in close spaces with other teens, shares drinks, spends time in bars or dorms or other crowded settings is at risk, Handy says. So basically, all teens.For influenza, the question of what puts someone at risk isn’t complicated either: “Do you have contact with other people during the winter?” Handy says. “If yes, you deserve a flu vaccine.” The administration’s redesignation of the flu vaccine to shared clinical decision making from a universal recommendation for children 6 months and older comes after one of the worst flu seasons for children, that of 2024–2025. There were. Data on vaccination status were available for 208 of those children: 89 percent were not fully immunized against the flu. This season’s flu vaccine doesn’t match a late-breaking flu strain that is causing many cases. But it still provides children and adolescentsFor U.S. children, rotavirus used to be the top cause of severe acute gastroenteritis, an infection of the gastrointestinal tract that leads to vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration and often hospitalization. Since vaccination was universally recommended in 2006, hospitalizations for the illness have fallen substantially. In the prevaccine era, the hospitalization rate for gastroenteritis was 76 per 10,000 in children under 5. By 2012, it had. Without routine vaccination, there will be an increase in rotavirus infections, Handy says. “We will end up seeing more children getting hospitalized for dehydration and vomiting who really don’t need to experience that.”, with which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention schedule used to be in alignment. “Clinicians can 100 percent continue to follow the schedule as laid out by the AAP,” Handy says.Scott says: “When the federal government and pediatricians disagree, I would say trust the pediatricians.” The science that supported the universal recommendation of these vaccines last month “is the same science that exists today,” he says. But now that the administration has recategorized the approach to these shots, Scott would advise parents to be proactive, to be sure to ask their providers during pediatric appointments if their child is up to date on vaccines. “Unfortunately, there is going to be more burden placed on parents now.” That burden should fall on public health institutions like the CDC, “but those institutions are failing, and so parents do have to fill in the gap.”The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has pulled back some long-standing vaccine recommendations for children, largely based on what other nations do rather than on new science. Leading medical organizations have published their own recommendations, which hew to the previous vaccination schedule. That schedule, developed over decades and based on scientific evidence on safety, efficacy and benefit versus risk, sets out a course of shots from birth to the teenage years that provides protection against 17 diseases.A number of states — which are the entities that actually set vaccine policy for their residents, such as required vaccines to attend school — have vowed to stick with the previous vaccination schedule. Some states have even banded together to preserve public health policies no longer endorsed by the federal government and provide information to the public. For instance, the West Coast Health Alliance notes that it
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Trump admin triples list of countries whose citizens must pay up to $15K for visa applicationToday's Video Headlines: 01/06/26
Read more »
Trump endorses Republican seeking to unseat Henry Cuellar, pardoned by TrumpRaquel Coronell Uribe is a breaking news reporter.
Read more »
Trump admin plans to freeze billions in childcare funding to Californiais an accountability reporter who has covered local government in Southern California for more than a decade.
Read more »
Trump, first lady set for Washington Trump–Kennedy Center premiere of ‘MELANIA’ ahead of global releaseFox News Channel offers its audiences in-depth news reporting, along with opinion and analysis encompassing the principles of free people, free markets and diversity of thought, as an alternative to the left-of-center offerings of the news marketplace.
Read more »
'Trump's goal is he wants the oil': Adam Smith slams Trump’s foreign policy shift -Award-winning broadcast journalist with 30+ years of experience covering stories that impact Washington — from major investigations to regional news.
Read more »
Trump supporters ‘plot’ royal marriage for Barron Trump to secure GreenlandA MAGA influencer has floated the wild idea of Denmark’s king offering Greenland as a dowry for his daughter’s hand in marriage to Trump’s youngest son.
Read more »