During the second term of President Donald Trump’s administration in the United States, there have been changes in the federal government’s recommendations for several children’s vaccines. According to President Trump’s request for health officials to review new guidelines on vaccine schedules in other countries, further changes may be on the horizon.
As of January, the United States recommended children to receive vaccines for 18 diseases, while Denmark only recommended 10 diseases. President Trump also mentioned that the types of diseases covered by vaccine schedules in Japan and Germany are fewer than in the United States.
The article systematically explores more information on President Trump’s memorandum and discusses which recommendations may be modified.
President Trump instructed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Jim O’Neill to “review the best practices in core childhood vaccine recommendations (vaccines recommended for all children) of developed countries, and provide scientific basis for these best practices”.
The President also added that if health officials determine that recommendations from other countries are superior to those of the United States, they should “update the U.S.’s core childhood vaccine schedule to align with scientific evidence and best practices of developed countries, while ensuring that Americans can currently access vaccines.”
President Trump stated on the Truth Social platform that he hopes to see a revised schedule based on the “golden standard of science and common sense”. He believes that Secretary Kennedy and the CDC “will swiftly and accurately complete this work for the children of our nation.”
“Thank you, Mr. President,” Kennedy replied on the X platform. “We are working on it.”
Dr. Robert Malone, former vaccine advisor to O’Neill and former host of EpochTV programs, told the Epoch Times that there are many discussions currently ongoing about the specifics of implementing President Trump’s directive.
“The entire vaccine schedule needs to be reconsidered now,” he added.
The Health and Human Services Department of the U.S. rejected applications to interview Kennedy or O’Neill, and did not respond to a series of questions sent via email.
Some experts welcomed this development.
“The United States is the country with the most serious problems of medication overuse on a global scale,” said Dr. Joseph Varon, Chairman and Chief Medical Officer of the Independent Medical Alliance based in Virginia. “U.S. health agencies should gather all available data globally, compare different methods, and develop the safest and most effective vaccine schedule for American infants.”
However, others believe that the current vaccine schedule should remain unchanged.
“Our current vaccine schedule is able to protect children, and it works very well,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association and former consultant for vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, to the Epoch Times. “There is no reason to believe that people are being over-vaccinated, it is completely unfounded.”
Officials from the Danish Health Authority and the Robert Koch Institute in Germany declined to comment on President Trump’s actions. Japanese authorities did not respond to comment requests.
CDC advisors voted earlier on December 5 to propose halting the recommendation for infants born to mothers with negative hepatitis B virus tests to receive the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth.
The CDC advisor noted that in Denmark and other countries, public health agencies do not recommend giving infants the so-called birth dose vaccine unless the mother’s hepatitis B test result is positive. Hepatitis B is a disease that can cause liver infection and severe complications.
A spokesperson for the Danish Health Authority stated in an email to the Epoch Times that Danish officials had evaluated in 2003 whether children should begin to receive the hepatitis B vaccine. According to the assessment, the decision of the agency was to focus on intensified testing, vaccination, and educational efforts for susceptible populations.
Vicky Pebsworth, a CDC advisor and board member of the National Vaccine Information Center, discussed this issue at the December 4 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
“Compared with the existing recommendations in most other developed countries, our current policy is inconsistent,” Pebsworth said.
President Trump praised the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ vote on December 5 as “a very good decision.” The White House noted in a briefing that “vaccinating newborns against hepatitis B is the standard practice in the United States, but it is not common in most developed countries, which typically only recommend vaccinating newborns born to mothers with positive hepatitis B test results.”
Adjustments to the U.S. vaccine schedule have historically been led by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Although nominally an advisory body, its recommendations are usually directly adopted by the CDC.
The U.S. Health and Human Services, led by Kennedy, also the superior agency of the CDC, issued a press release highlighting the voting results. O’Neill stated in a statement that the comprehensive and rigorous discussions on the appropriateness of vaccinating infants within the first few hours of birth conducted by the committee are beneficial to the American people.
The Health and Human Services Department declined to disclose when O’Neill would accept or reject the proposal to the Epoch Times via email. Historically, taking action on recommendations from the ACIP can take from a few hours to several months.
The CDC currently recommends three doses of the hepatitis B vaccine, with the regimen to be completed when the infant is 19 months old.
CDC advisors stated that before deciding on vaccinating infants born to mothers with negative hepatitis B virus tests, parents should first consult with a doctor and weigh the risks and benefits of the vaccine. For infants who have not received the birth dose vaccine, advisors recommend not administering any doses of the vaccine before two months of age. They also stressed that serological testing should be performed for any subsequent doses to confirm that children’s antibody levels reach at least 10 milli international units per milliliter (mIU/mL), which is the recognized protective threshold.
However, some experts oppose this proposal.
“When new data supports modifying a recommendation and a corresponding plan is developed to maximize the benefits to the public while minimizing the risks posed by the proposed changes, modifying the recommendation is appropriate,” wrote Dr. Robert H. Hopkins Jr., Medical Director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, in an email to the Epoch Times.
“But currently there is no evidence to suggest that modifying the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine is necessary, nor any plan in place to minimize the risk of increased cases of neonatal hepatitis B due to this change,” he added.
The foundation’s partners include companies like Dynavax Technologies, GlaxoSmithKline, and Merck, which produce hepatitis B vaccines, and they also oppose changing the related recommendations.
The White House stated in the briefing that “currently, the United States recommends annual influenza vaccination starting from six months of age, while in many similar countries, annual influenza vaccination is not recommended for all children as a core vaccine.”
Denmark primarily offers flu vaccines to the elderly and young people with specific diseases such as diabetes and chronic liver disease. Germany does not recommend flu vaccination for all children. Japan provides flu vaccines for children aged 6 months and older but does not include it in the vaccine schedule.
“In fact, the effectiveness of the flu vaccine is not very good,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, former head of the CDC during Trump’s first term, in a recent interview on EpochTV’s American Thought Leaders. “It’s not a very good vaccine.”
The effectiveness of the flu vaccine fluctuates widely, with the vaccine formula being updated every year to address the variations of circulating strains. According to the CDC, the effectiveness of the flu vaccine has ranged from as low as 19% to as high as 60% since 2009.
Earlier this summer, CDC advisors voted to support the existing recommendation to vaccinate all individuals aged 6 months and above against flu annually. Kennedy adopted this recommendation as the CDC director had not yet taken office.
Vivien Dugan, director of the CDC’s flu division, told advisors before the June 26 vote that the vaccine had prevented millions from doctor visits and hospitalizations within a few days of vaccination. “These estimates highlight the benefits of flu vaccination,” she said.
However, even staunch vaccine advocate Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), acknowledges the numerous “deficiencies” in flu vaccines. Fauci and senior officials from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) wrote in a paper titled “Rethinking next-generation vaccines for coronaviruses, influenzaviruses, and other respiratory viruses” in January 2023 that these vaccines “do not provide comprehensive protection against the constantly evolving viral variants and the duration of protection is short.”
“Compared to many other countries, the United States more aggressively recommends almost all children aged 6 months and above receive the flu vaccine annually,” said Dr. Joel Warsh, a pediatrician in Los Angeles, in an email to the Epoch Times. “I believe we need to have a clearer discussion on which children would significantly benefit (e.g., children with high-risk diseases, children in certain age groups), and we also need to discuss if a more targeted approach instead of recommending the vaccine to everyone annually would be more reasonable.”
The rotavirus vaccine, which can cause diarrhea and vomiting, was first approved in 1998 but removed from the U.S. vaccine schedule the following year due to issues with the vaccine. It was reintroduced after a new vaccine was approved in 2006.
In the U.S., infants receive two to three doses of the vaccine if parents follow CDC recommendations.
Both Malone and Warsh suggest that these recommendations may be reconsidered under President Trump’s executive order.
“The rotavirus vaccine has significantly reduced severe dehydration due to acute diarrhea, especially in high-risk areas,” Warsh said. “Meanwhile, in the pre-vaccine era, the mortality rate of rotavirus in high-income countries was already low, but there were still some small but real risks, such as the risk of intussusception. This is a classic example that suggests recommendations based on risk or specific circumstances could be considered: is the net therapeutic effect of vaccines the same for all children? Or should we differentiate between different demographic groups?”
Labels for approved rotavirus vaccines indicate that a study conducted after the vaccine received approval found cases of intussusception in the days following vaccination, where one part of the intestines folds into another, resulting in intestinal obstruction.
The label states that children with a history of intussusception or uncorrected congenital gastrointestinal anomalies should not receive the rotavirus vaccine, as it may increase their risk of intussusception.
Both Germany and Japan recommend multiple doses of the rotavirus vaccine. Rotavirus vaccines are not included in Denmark’s childhood immunization program.
Hepatitis A is a virus that can cause liver infection. According to the CDC, most children under the age of 6 do not show symptoms when infected with hepatitis A. Outbreaks of hepatitis A cases typically occur among drug users and men who have sex with men.
Since 2006, the CDC has recommended children receive two doses of the hepatitis A vaccine before age 2 as part of the strategy to prevent about a third of cases among the age group, and eliminating the primary source of infection for other populations.
Dr. Monique Yohanan, Senior Health Policy Researcher at the Independent Women’s Forum, wrote in a white paper about rethinking the U.S. vaccine schedule that the incidence of hepatitis A has declined after vaccination recommendations, especially in the child demographic. Yohanan believes vaccines are crucial for disease prevention, but vaccination recommendations should be updated to restore public trust and improve health conditions.
Data shows that there have been increasing numbers of hepatitis A cases in recent years, particularly among adults.
“The experience with hepatitis A shows that medicalizing social policies create an illusion of progress, but outcomes may result in failure,” Yohanan wrote. “Following 19 years of universal vaccination (and 10 years of regional vaccination before large-scale universal vaccination), after administering hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine, we have successfully eradicated a disease that posed no substantial threat to the targeted population—infants. However, meanwhile, the susceptible group we wanted to protect experienced a doubling in the rate of severe injuries and deaths.”
Yohanan told the Epoch Times that federal officials should reexamine the recommendations for the hepatitis A vaccine.
“The disease poses practically no significant risks for children. It presents very mild symptoms in children, so most other countries do not include it in their vaccine schedules,” she said.
Denmark, Germany, and Japan do not recommend children to be universally vaccinated against hepatitis A.
Dr. Robert Hopkins Jr., Medical Director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told the Epoch Times via email that current evidence does not support lowering the recommendations for rotavirus or hepatitis A vaccines. “Changing vaccine recommendations would increase the risk of disease outbreaks,” he said.
Doctors indicate that recommendations for the varicella (chickenpox) vaccine and the DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis) triple vaccine should also be reassessed.
The CDC recommends children to receive one dose of the varicella vaccine around one year old and a booster shot at 4 to 6 years old. The first varicella vaccine dose was added to the immunization schedule in 1995, and the second dose was added in 2006.
“Universal children’s vaccination against chickenpox can obviously reduce cases of childhood chickenpox, but there have always been concerns that this would lead to a change in the age of initial infections (more adult cases, also more severe, and the impact on shingles because natural immune enhancement from circulating wild-type varicella virus might be reduced),” said Dr. Varon, Chairman of the Independent Medical Alliance. “For that reason, some European countries still do not recommend universal vaccination against chickenpox but recommend vaccinating it for high-risk populations or families of high-risk patients.”
Research findings, including a paper titled “Exposure to varicella boosts immunity to herpes zoster: implications for mass vaccination against chickenpox” from 2002, suggest that vaccinating children against varicella can lead to an increase in adult cases of shingles, as it reduces the overall number of chickenpox cases. Exposure to the varicella virus strengthens immunity, and shingles is caused by the reactivation of the virus when immunity is weakened.
Labels on approved rotavirus vaccines indicated that a study conducted after the vaccine’s approval found an increased incidence of shingles cases following vaccination, as part of the body’s immune response to the stress of vaccination. However, a paper titled “The Impact of Universal Varicella Vaccination on Herpes Zoster Incidence in the United States: Comparison of Birth Cohorts Preceding and Following Varicella Vaccination Program Launch” from 2022 suggested that these predictions were not confirmed.
Denmark is one of the few countries that do not recommend universal vaccination against chickenpox for children. Germany and Japan do recommend it.
The CDC recommends children to receive four doses of the DTaP vaccine before age 7. It is suggested to receive the fourth dose at 19 months and the fifth dose at 4 to 6 years old.
Dr. Warsh stated, “Preventing tetanus and whooping cough is important, but we have reason to question whether four doses of the DTaP vaccine in the first two years of life is the only reasonable approach. In low-risk environments, is spacing out the doses or reducing the total number of doses effective while maintaining protection? And how does the rate of immunity decay differ among different age groups?”
“Other countries have begun raising these questions,” he added.
For example, Denmark recommends infants receive three doses of the vaccine within the first year after birth, but the fourth dose should be given after 5 years of age. Denmark does not recommend a fifth dose.
Measles and polio vaccine recommendations are expected to remain unchanged.
The U.S. has two measles vaccines: the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) combination vaccine and the MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella, varicella) combination vaccine. Due to the higher risk of febrile seizures, the CDC stopped recommending MMRV vaccination for toddlers earlier this year. CDC still advises children to receive two doses of the measles vaccine before age 7.
FDA senior official Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg stated at a recent meeting, “It needs pointing out that we know the measles vaccine can indeed prevent measles, and we have seen measles cases in unvaccinated individuals.”
Kennedy mentioned in a Senate hearing in the fall that he does not expect any changes to the measles vaccine. However, in October, he stated that health officials were studying the feasibility of splitting the combined measles vaccine proposed by President Trump.
“The Secretary has made it clear that he considers the measles vaccine the best way to prevent measles,” said Dr. Malone, a CDC advisor. “But that doesn’t mean that the timing of vaccination will not be considered, especially in children, to avoid the concentration of multiple vaccine doses as seen now.”
Manufacturers have not expressed interest in splitting the combined vaccines, and the U.S. currently does not have separate vaccines for these diseases.
The CDC advises children to receive four doses of the polio vaccine before their seventh birthday, which can be administered as a single shot or in combination with other antigens.
Kennedy previously expressed uncertainty about the number of deaths caused by the polio vaccine compared to the number it prevents. During his presidential campaign, Kennedy’s lawyer Aaron Siri filed a petition on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network requesting the FDA to revoke or suspend the approval of the independent polio vaccine, claiming that the vaccine had not been adequately tested. In 2023, the FDA stated that further review and analysis by institutional officials were required to address the issues raised in the petition.
Trump once told reporters in 2024, “You will not lose the polio vaccine, that will not happen.”
“I support the measles vaccine, I support the polio vaccine,” Kennedy said at a confirmation hearing months later. “As the Secretary of Health and Human Services, I will never do anything to hinder or stop people from receiving either of these vaccines.”
Denmark, Germany, and Japan recommend routine polio vaccination for children.
The translated article presented various viewpoints on potential changes to the vaccine schedule under President Trump’s directive. It explored the debates surrounding childhood vaccination, including the concerns raised by experts and practitioners, as well as the potential impact of modifying recommendations for various vaccines.