Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired every member of a powerful vaccine advisory committee last summer and replaced them with a bunch of cranks, sidelining scientific experts in service of his anti-vaccine agenda.
Well, the joke’s on his critics. Turns out he doesn’t intend to listen to those handpicked advisers anyway. Instead, he and his team are unilaterally changing the federal government’s vaccine recommendations.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Monday that it is overhauling the childhood vaccine schedule, reducing the number of routine shots universally recommended for babies and children from covering 17 diseases to 11. Now off the list are immunizations for rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), hepatitis A and hepatitis B, many of which have been recommended for decades. Some will now only be recommended for high-risk individuals.
In doing so, the department is circumventing the government’s entire vaccine review system, which was put in place to make sure that decisions about what immunizations children should get, and when, are based on careful review of scientific evidence, including input from outside experts and pediatricians. The administration has decided this safety infrastructure isn’t necessary; parents can simply trust that Kennedy — who is not a doctor and has recommended treating measles with cod liver oil — has their best interests at heart.
Officials have defended the overhaul by pointing to “unknown risks” of vaccination and limited safety data, even though vaccines undergo strict safety tests before they go to market. They also claim the new schedule will help align U.S. recommendations with those of other developed countries such as Denmark, expecting Americans to believe that the United States is comparable to the tiny European nation where preventive care against infectious diseases is often easier to access. In reality, the goal of this administration is not based in any thoughtful review of data; it simply wants people to get fewer vaccines.
The positive news is that the change is unlikely to have enormous practical implications for insurance coverage, including under federal programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Parents who want to protect their children from these diseases may still do so by paying out of pocket. Moreover, many doctors will probably still continue to follow guidance in favor of vaccines from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which quickly condemned HHS’s overhaul as “dangerous and unnecessary.”
Monday’s change will certainly confuse Americans about who should get the vaccines and make parents more likely to question the safety of shots. The inevitable consequence will be more sick children and greater spread of potentially dangerous diseases.
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