The Trump administration’s decision to no longer fully recommend a third of childhood vaccines has moved the United States from a global leader in vaccination to lagging behind other high-income nations, experts have warned. The change, described as the largest in modern American history, was made without scientific evidence or public input and is expected to worsen vaccine access and increase disease outbreaks.
The move is the latest escalation against vaccines from Robert F Kennedy Jr, a longtime vaccine sceptic and current secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Some vaccines, including hepatitis A, RSV and hepatitis B, will now only be offered to high-risk groups, while others such as influenza and rotavirus will require a doctor’s recommendation. The HPV vaccine will be reduced from two doses to one.
Health officials claim the changes align the US with peer developed countries, as instructed by Donald Trump in December. However, most high-income nations, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan and European countries, maintain universal childhood recommendations for vaccines the US has now dropped. The UK, for example, recently added the chickenpox vaccine to its schedule.
Experts noted that many countries are expanding their vaccine schedules, often following evidence from the US. The new US schedule is now closer to Denmark’s, which has the most minimalist childhood vaccine schedule among high-income nations. Unlike Denmark, the US has 330 million people, no universal healthcare, and significant health disparities, making the changes particularly risky.
“We need to follow what our peer countries are doing – and have universal healthcare,” said Daniel Jernigan, former director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. The lack of healthcare access and paid sick leave in the US means diseases spread more before Americans seek care, increasing the threat of outbreaks.
