“Not in the Best Interests of Child Health” - RFK Jr.’s New Vaccine Schedule Tanks CDC Credibility

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently made major changes to the vaccines it recommends for children. First, in December, it decided to no longer recommend the hepatitis B vaccine at birth. Then in January, RFK Jr. abruptly reduced the number of vaccines recommended by the CDC from 17 to 11. Just last month, I wrote about how these changes were universally panned by the medical community as unscientific, unnecessary, and dangerous.

In response, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published its own immunization schedule. AAP has done this since 1930, and there were no major changes to their recommendations from last year. At any other time, there would be no story, but this year’s statement served as a pointed rebuke to the CDC and rejection of their changes. Twelve major medical and healthcare organizations endorsed AAP's schedule in their announcement.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics came out with a strong statement that they do not agree with the CDC’s recommendations, and in my 40 years of [work in] infectious disease, I’ve never seen that sort of disconnect,” Dr. John Bradley, infectious disease expert at Rady Children’s Hospital, told a local San Diego news station. “I’m very happy that the American Academy of Pediatrics is pushing back and saying no, these new CDC recommendations are not in the best interests of child health.”

For the last three decades, the CDC worked with the AAP and other independent experts to consider updates to the recommended childhood immunization schedule. These groups reached a scientific consensus and published unified statements. The goal was to make the best recommendation based on the science while also reinforcing public trust in vaccines. But this year, RFK Jr. and the CDC went rogue.

How Pediatric Providers Are Reacting

For the first time in decades, the CDC and the AAP have different recommended childhood immunization schedules. To find out which schedule pediatric providers recommend, I searched social media, websites, local news interviews, and contacted providers directly to ask whether they follow the CDC or AAP guidelines. The answer was clear.

I found more than 100 pediatric providers operating an estimated 300+ offices across all 50 states and DC that are rejecting RFK Jr.’s new vaccine schedule and following the AAP's recommendations. The common theme from pediatricians to parents was that the science hadn’t changed, so neither would their recommendations.

Many others haven’t made public statements, but have updated their websites and office vaccine policies to reflect their support for the AAP schedule. I used the Wayback Machine, an archive of how websites looked in the past, to verify these changes. I found that pediatric providers across the country are quietly removing CDC recommendations and scrubbing links to the CDC website as a trusted source on vaccines.

The list of providers endorsing the AAP schedule includes nearly all the top-ranked children’s hospitals in the country: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Children’s National Hospital in DC, Children’s Hospital of Colorado, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Cincinnati Children’s, Rady Children’s Hospital, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Texas Children’s Hospital, and others.

Notably, I could not find a single pediatric provider who supported the new CDC immunization schedule. I even searched MAHA-friendly media. In a glowing piece praising the update, one MAHA article mentioned three doctors who support the CDC’s new recommendations. All three are currently working for the Trump administration; none are pediatricians or have any pediatric health qualifications, and one isn’t even a medical doctor (doctor of mathematics).

The CDC’s Credibility on Vaccines is Tanking

Public trust in the CDC started declining over COVID, falling from 85% to 63% at its low, but a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) shows just 47% of Americans trust the CDC on vaccines today. Americans are also twice as likely to believe the recent CDC changes to the immunization schedule will negatively affect children's health (54% vs 26%).

We also see significant partisan gaps in views on public health and vaccines:

• Republicans think the new CDC schedule will have a positive impact on child health (47% positive, 23% negative), while Democrats overwhelmingly think it will be negative (83% negative, 9% positive)
• Trust in the COVID vaccine is starkly divided (79% of Democrats trust the vaccine vs 28% of Republicans)
• There is also a divide on flu (82% of Democrats trust vs 52% of Republicans) and hepatitis B vaccines (85% of Democrats trust vs 61% of Republicans)

It's no coincidence that confidence in vaccines is falling at the same time that trust in the CDC hits new lows. While I'm glad that pediatricians and medical institutions are rejecting the CDC's latest vaccine recommendations, it's a tragedy that they have to do it in the first place. Instead of trying to learn lessons from COVID and rebuild public trust, RFK Jr. and other political appointees are actively pitting the CDC against doctors, nurses, and scientists.

Right now, we need institutions to oppose bad policies and stand up for science. At the same time, we need to begin charting a course for rebuilding public trust in public health leadership while recognizing that it may be a generational project. We need a healthy CDC for a healthy America.

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