The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday significantly pared down the number of vaccines recommended to all children, from 17 immunizations to 11. The federal government no longer says that all kids should be immunized against hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), flu, and meningococcal disease, recommending these instead in a narrower set of circumstances.
Vermont Health Commissioner Rick Hildebrant said he had been expecting a major revision to the national schedule. Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine critic, took over as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the federal government has been slowly whittling away at its list of recommended shots.
Still, Hildebrant said he had not expected “this degree of changes.”
“I thought they would be a little more subtle than not recommending flu shots for children, which is a little shocking to me,” Hildebrant said.
Kennedy said Monday that the new recommendations better reflect “international consensus” among peer nations. The U.S.’s new schedule now mostly mirrors Denmark, which recommends fewer shots than any nation surveyed by HHS.
The new schedule has been met with dismay from the nation’s public health establishment. The American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, called the changes “dangerous and unnecessary."
“The United States is not Denmark, and there is no reason to impose the Danish immunization schedule on America’s families. America is a unique country, and Denmark’s population, public health infrastructure, and disease-risk differ greatly from our own,” the group’s president, Dr. Andrew D. Racine said in a public statement.
For now, the CDC’s changes should not keep families in Vermont from accessing the shots the federal government once universally endorsed. The state’s health department has not changed what vaccines they recommend. Insurers are not expected to change what they cover, and the federal program through which Vermont purchases its vaccines in bulk will continue to provide immunizations to states, including those that are no longer recommended for all kids by the CDC.
But that could very well change in the future, Hildebrant said. That’s why his department is working with state legislative leaders on a bill that would decouple the state’s vaccine policy from the federal government’s, and, if need be, allow the state to find alternate ways to purchase and distribute immunizations.
“We want to prepare ourselves for that and have a backup mechanism so that we can always supply these vaccines to Vermonters,” he said.
The legislation, H.545, would also require all insurers to cover all state-recommended vaccines without any out-of-pocket costs.
Hildebrant said “it’s okay to have questions about vaccines.” But the CDC, he said, which had long been the gold-standard for public health guidance, is no longer a reliable source of information.
“Talk to your pediatricians if you have concerns or questions about vaccines. If you can't get to your pediatrician, talk to your pharmacist, talk to your school nurse, talk to your trusted health care professional about your questions,” he said.
