CDC slashes list of recommended childhood vaccinations from 17 to 11

The CDC has reduced the number of recommended childhood vaccines from 17 down to 11, according to a decision memorandum signed today by Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill, in his role as Acting Director of the CDC. This change is set to take effect immediately.

A Presidential Memorandum given by President Trump on December 5, 2025, directed the CDC to examine the science behind childhood vaccine schedules of 20 peer, developed nations and to adjust for the U.S. as they saw fit.

These updated recommendations were designed to reflect Denmark’s childhood vaccine schedule, which is one of the leanest schedules among developed nations. Denmark currently recommends only 10 of the 17 previously recommended vaccines in the United States. The only difference is that the CDC still recommends all children receive a chickenpox vaccine, unlike Denmark.

“After an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in the news release. “This decision protects children, respects families and rebuilds trust in public health.”

Childhood vaccine recommendations that have been removed include vaccines for the rotavirus, COVID-19, influenza, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A and hepatitis B. Instead, the CDC advises that these decisions should be made by parents and healthcare providers unless the child is considered high-risk.

Now, only high-risk children should receive a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), hepatitis A, hepatitis B, dengue, meningococcal ACWY and meningococcal B, the CDC recommends.

Critics of this move include physicians who have said that Denmark has key differences from the United States such as epidemiological differences and a smaller population, which means that what works for Denmark may not necessarily work for the United States.

“I think that the goal of this administration is to make vaccines optional,” Paul Offit, M.D., an infectious-disease physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said in a comment to the Washington Street Journal. “And that’s just wrong. It puts children in harm’s way.”

For example, prior to the release of the rotavirus vaccine in 2006, up to 70,000 infants and toddlers were hospitalized annually and as many as 60 died.

The CDC will continue to organize the childhood immunization schedule in three categories.

1. Immunizations Recommended for All Children
2. Immunizations Recommended for Certain High-Risk Groups or Populations
3. Immunizations Based on Shared Clinical Decision-Making

The first category includes vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus (HPV) and varicella (chickenpox). Insurance companies will still be required to cover all CDC-recommended vaccines without cost-sharing.

Trust in public health in the United States has declined in recent years, falling from 72% in 2024 to 40% between 2020 and 2024. This was caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of misinformation.

“Public health works only when people trust it,” Food and Drug Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H. said in the news release. “That trust depends on transparency, rigorous science and respect for families. This decision recommits HHS to all three.”