With its October 2025 and January 2026 changes, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services has unveiled a significantly narrowed childhood vaccination schedule that potentially puts children at risk for disease and could hinder access to healthcare for some.
Though the Administration’s memo on the change cites a decline in vaccine trust and uptake and “knowledge gaps concerning safety,” as reasons for the policy changes, the changes contradict the government’s own 2024 data that shows among children born between 1994 and 2023, childhood vaccines prevented 1.1 million deaths and 508 million lifetime illnesses.
Despite this evidence, the new policy recommends seven instead of 13 routine vaccines. It also divides the universal routine vaccine category into three — immunizations recommended for all children; high-risk groups or populations; and another for parents to make vaccine decisions in consultation with a physician.
The new policy states that all recommended vaccines in the three categories will remain covered by insurance programs such as Medicaid, CHIP, and Affordable Care Act and health insurers have committed to continue covering vaccines on the previous vaccine schedule through 2026. But experts like Dr. Paul Offit, who leads the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, are dubious.
“A vaccine will not be covered by the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program unless it is recommended, and I just wonder if we are moving toward making vaccines optional and less affordable and less available,” Offit said.
According to Offit, who is also a professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, there will be an impact to health care and health care access for marginalized children if recommended vaccines are no longer covered under programs such as the VFC program, which covers vaccine costs for children whose families cannot afford them.
Dr. Tyeese Gaines, an emergency and urgent care physician who has treated children and adults for more than 15 years, is also concerned about how disenfranchised children will fare under the new policies.
“For marginalized families, including Black, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, and other AANHPI communities, these shifts may widen disparities if access or coverage becomes more complicated. We need to be vigilant that these changes don’t unintentionally reduce vaccination rates in communities that already face healthcare barriers,” Gaines said.
The policy changes, which took immediate effect, could also increase the threat of diseases such as influenza, which is surging.
“This is already one of our worst flu seasons ever with 120,000 people hospitalized and 5,000 who have died. There’s already a handful of children who’ve died this year in addition to the nearly 300 who died last year,” Offit said.
Parents can still have their children receive vaccines for the 17 diseases that were indicated in the CDC’s 2025 vaccination schedule, and per the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)’s guidance.
That is what Ingrid Hebron, a mother of three children ages four to eight in Northern Virginia, plans to do.
“I am pro-vaccine. The health system already sucks, so why not protect our kids specifically when we live in a country as big as the U.S. and with people coming and going from all over the world? I will keep my three kids in the old schedule,” Hebron said.
Gaines has straightforward advice for parents.
“Speak directly to your trusted clinicians. Don’t get lost in the noise of social media or political debates. Look to respected medical organizations for guidance, because at the end of the day, the larger physician groups are aligned on the evidence, despite politics. We can’t let political noise overshadow sound medical judgment or the safety of our kids,” Gaines said.
Tips to Navigate the New Childhood Vaccine Schedule
1. Rely on evidence-based vaccine recommendations from organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
2. Discuss vaccine recommendations with your child’s doctor.
3. Understand what shared clinical decision-making means and how it benefits health equity.
4. Track vaccine policies and school entry vaccine requirements in your state.
