The Jan. 5 announcement by the Trump administration to no longer recommend a third of childhood vaccines has triggered a backlash from scientists, medical associations, and experts from inside the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These vaccines have been widely used safely and effectively for decades, and no new scientific evidence has come to light to justify any sweeping changes. Demetre Daskalakis, a former director of the CDC’s center on immunization and respiratory diseases, said, “The changes to vaccine recommendations don’t reference disease epidemiology or modeling to justify the shift in the schedule.”
The decision was made by political appointees, not scientists. One CDC scientist who works on vaccines told the Washington Post, “none of us had any idea this was happening … and only learned when we heard people had been invited” to a news briefing to explain the new vaccine policy for reporters. The decision memo which made these changes was signed by acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill, who is not a scientist and has no medical expertise.
According to a Jan. 1, 2026 Health and Human Services press release, the primary justification for these CDC changes was the political desire to more closely align the U.S. to “peer developed countries” as instructed on Dec. 5, 2025 by U.S. President Donald Trump. But, even ignoring the scientific evidence, this political argument is false. The vast majority of “peer developed countries” have childhood vaccine schedules very similar to the U.S. schedule. The reason that these high-income countries have similar vaccine schedules is because they often followed the U.S. schedule. The “outlier” country is Denmark which the Trump administration has used as a model, but Denmark has one of the most minimal vaccine schedules among developed countries. Excluding annual flu shots, Japan gives a total of 43 vaccine doses; Germany and Canada each give 45 doses; Australia gives 46 doses; and the U.S. gives 49 total doses, according to CDC documents. Dr. Jake Scott, an infectious diseases specialist at Stanford University School of Medicine said that the new recommendations aren’t “really about aligning with peer nations. It’s about finding a justification for this predetermined conclusion. They want to do away with vaccines.”
The decision was made with no public comment, no feedback from outside scientists or professional groups, or even consultation from the handpicked members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Even the press briefing was given to a small, select group of reporters.
