Donald Trump has signed an executive order that could significantly reshape the childhood vaccine schedule in the United States by directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review recommendations that may cut the number of routinely advised vaccines nearly in half. The order, issued on Friday with little public attention, refers to a scientific assessment published in January by the Department of Health and Human Services under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic. While the order does not explicitly say vaccines will be removed, it instructs the CDC and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to examine the assessment and clinical data and update the schedule for children and adolescents accordingly.
The HHS assessment, co-authored by Tracy Beth Høeg before her later firing, said the CDC should keep vaccines for 10 diseases in the category recommended for all children: measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease and HPV, along with chickenpox. If adopted, that framework would remove routine recommendations for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningitis, rotavirus, influenza and Covid-19. The report also suggested reducing HPV dosing for children from two or three shots, depending on age, to just one dose.
The White House said the policy is to align the core childhood vaccine schedule with scientific evidence and best practices from peer developed countries while preserving access to vaccines currently available to Americans. The move has drawn strong opposition from 15 states with Democratic governors, which are suing HHS and Kennedy over the proposed changes. The states argue that stripping vaccines of their universally recommended status would create confusion, weaken protection for children and place additional strain on state health systems.
Public health experts say the consequences could be serious. William Schaffner, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University and former member of ACIP, said there is little scientific basis for altering long-established recommendations that have gone through multiple review stages. He warned that if childhood vaccination declines over time, the US could see a resurgence of diseases already largely controlled, pointing to recent measles outbreaks as an example. He said such a shift would likely lead to more sick children, more doctor visits and more hospitalizations.
The states’ lawsuit also challenges the administration’s reliance on Denmark as a model for US vaccine policy. Attorneys argued that Denmark is not truly comparable to the United States because of its smaller, more homogeneous population and universal healthcare system, and said its vaccine program is an international outlier that cannot simply be transferred to the US. A Danish health official quoted in the New York Times also questioned the comparison, saying it is not fair to use Denmark as a benchmark without matching its broader social and healthcare conditions.
The case adds to a broader political and legal battle over vaccine policy in the US, with critics warning that changes to federal recommendations could have lasting effects on child health, public confidence and disease prevention efforts nationwide.
