(MASSACHUSETTS) — A Massachusetts judge ruled on Monday in favor of medical organizations in their litigation against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his changes to federal vaccine policy.
The judge temporarily blocked changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that were made at the beginning of this year, in which Kennedy reduced the number of recommended shots from 17 to 11.
The judge also suspended the appointments of the 13 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee, who were all appointed unilaterally by Kennedy after he fired all the preceding members.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee On Immunization Practices at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (Megan Varner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Monday it is changing the childhood immunization schedule.
The federal health agency is removing the universal recommendation for multiple shots, in what it calls an attempt to mirror the schedules of peer countries.
Instead of being universally recommended for almost all children at certain age cut offs, vaccines are now split into three categories: vaccines for all children, vaccines for certain high-risk groups and vaccines based on shared clinical decision making.
Shared clinical decision making is the term used by CDC to imply that patients, and parents, should talk to their provider about whether they should be vaccinated.
Some of the vaccines and immunizations that are no longer universally recommended include RSV, flu and COVID, as well as the hepatitis and meningococcal vaccines.
For children not in certain high-risk groups, no vaccine is recommended before the age of two months.
The change comes after President Donald Trump signed a memo in early December last year directing Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to examine how other nations structure their childhood vaccine schedules.
HHS officials say the change will not affect health insurance coverage of vaccines.
“President Trump directed us to examine how other developed nations protect their children and to take action if they are doing better,” Kennedy said in a statement. “After an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent. This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health.”
The changes drew rebuke from doctors, who expressed concern that such a change did not undergo further debate before being implemented.
The CDC’s vaccine advisory committee met last month to discuss the childhood vaccine schedule, but only voted to remove the universal recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.
“I thought there might be proposals that were debated amongst experts in a public meeting, and then maybe something like this resulting from that, but not in the way this has been done, where a new schedule is released, which has already been signed on to by all the health advisors for the president,” Dr. Dave Margolius, an internal medicine physician and director of public for the city of Cleveland, told ABC News.
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said altering the schedule without consulting U.S. experts in pediatrics, infectious diseases and public health “undermines both scientific rigor and transparency.”
He told ABC News that the American health care system is unique, which makes it difficult to align the U.S. vaccine schedule to those of peer nations.
“Vaccine schedules should be crafted to reflect the specific patterns of disease and access to healthcare in the United States; unfortunately, these vital factors were not adequately considered in the development of the new schedule,” Daskalakis said.
In a press briefing representing the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Dr. Sean O’Leary, an infectious disease physician and chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases, said the federal government can no longer be trusted in its role to protect American children from vaccine-preventable diseases.
“Tragically, our federal government can no longer be trusted in this role,” O’Leary said. “Unfortunately, our government is making it much harder for pediatricians to do our jobs, and they’re making it much harder for parents to know what to do.”
O’Leary confirmed the AAP was not consulted by HHS ahead of this decision to change the vaccine schedule.
Additionally, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician and chair of the Senate’s health committee, distanced himself from the CDC’s decision to change the childhood vaccine schedule.
“Changing the pediatric vaccine schedule based on no scientific input on safety risks and little transparency will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors, and will make America sicker,” Cassidy wrote in a post on X, rejecting the recent changes.
Cassidy added that the schedule is “not a mandate,” but rather a recommendation that gives parents the “power” to choose which vaccines their children receive.
(SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C.) — At least 99 new measles cases are being reported in South Carolina amid the state’s outbreak.
This brings the total number of cases in the state to 310. There are currently 200 people in quarantine, according to health officials.
The outbreak has been ongoing as state health officials continue to push for vaccinations. The majority of cases are located around Spartanburg County.
“The number of those in quarantine does not reflect the number actually exposed,” Dr. Linda Bell, the state epidemiologist, said in a press releases. “An increasing number of public exposure sites are being identified with likely hundreds more people exposed who are not aware they should be in quarantine if they are not immune to measles. Previous measles transmission studies have shown that one measles case can result in up to 20 new infections among unvaccinated contacts.”
South Carolina’s department of public health said it sent a statewide health alert on Jan. 7, “advising health care providers and facilities of the importance of heightened awareness for measles and recommended measures for the use of masks and rapid isolation of suspect measles cases to protect people in health care settings from exposures.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends that people receive two doses of the MMR vaccine, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC says.
However, CDC data shows vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years. During the 2024-2025 school year, 92.5% of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine, according to data. This is lower than the 92.7% seen the previous school year and the 95.2% seen in the 2019-2020 school year, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(NEW YORK) — Flu activity could continue to increase in the U.S. over the next few weeks, according to a top flu epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There’s a lot of influenza out there right now,” Dr. Carrie Reed, chief of the epidemiology and prevention branch of the CDC’s influenza division, told ABC News.
“We often see activity continue into the spring … I think the reality is that it’s going to continue to be elevated for a little bit longer,” she continued.
The CDC’s latest estimates indicate that there have been at least 11 million illnesses, 120,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths from flu so far this season.
“That’s likely a low estimate based on the data that we’re seeing so far,” Reed said, adding that the federal health agency typically publishes the lower range of the estimates.
A new variant that first emerged in the summer, known as subclade K, has become the dominant strain, CDC data shows. Subclade K is a variant of the H3N2 virus, which is itself a subtype of influenza A.
Of the 994 flu samples tested since Sept. 30, nearly all were influenza A. Of those samples that underwent further testing roughly 90% were H3N2, CDC data shows.
“Subclade K has acquired some mutations in the virus that make it a little bit different than what’s in the vaccine and what was circulating over the last couple years,” Reed said.
Public health experts currently recommend that everyone ages 6 months and older, with rare exceptions, get an annual flu vaccine.
Although the current flu vaccine is not a perfect match to subclade K, it is still expected to offer some protection against the new variant and lower the risk of serious disease, hospitalization and death.
Reed added that the new variant does not appear to be driving more severe illness yet.
“There are still benefits to vaccine, even if the virus [has] somewhat drifted from what’s in the vaccine,” she said. “We haven’t seen increases in hospitalization and mortality yet in the ways that we have with [doctors’ visits], although that’s something that we continue to watch for as well.”
For those who have gotten sick, there are medicines available, known as antivirals, that may help reduce the severity and length of illness.
Reed said for those who contract the flu and have a higher risk of severe disease, they should seek care early and speak with their doctor about receiving a prescription for flu antivirals.
She explained that flu antivirals have been found to reduce the duration of illness as well as lower the risk for severe disease, hospitalization and death.
Health officials have stressed that it is not too late for people get a flu shot if they haven’t received one yet.
“There’s still time to get a flu vaccine,” Reed said. “It does take a couple weeks for your immune response to pick up after vaccination, but that does mean there’s many more weeks of flu activity to benefit from the protection of an influenza vaccine.”
