New CDC-recommended vaccine schedule scales back shots for children

Federal health officials this week announced dramatic revisions to the slate of vaccines recommended for American children, reducing the number of diseases prevented by routine shots from 17 to 11 (Source: “Kennedy Scales Back the Number of Vaccines Recommended for Children,” New York Times, Jan. 5).
 
Jim O’Neill, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has updated the agency’s immunization schedule to reflect the changes, effective immediately, officials said at a news briefing.

States, not the federal government, have the authority to mandate vaccinations. But recommendations from the CDC greatly influence state regulations.
 
The CDC’s new schedule continues to recommend vaccines against some diseases, including measles, polio and whooping cough, for all children.
Immunization against six other illnesses — hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal disease, rotavirus, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, the leading cause of hospitalization in American infants — will be recommended for only some high-risk groups or after consultation with a healthcare provider.
 
The new schedule was developed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his appointees, a departure from the detailed and methodical evidence-based process that has underpinned vaccine recommendations in the nation for decades. Until now, a federal panel of independent advisers typically reviewed scientific data for each new vaccine and when and how it should be administered to children, before making recommendations.