CDC recommends fewer vaccines as disease among unvaccinated spikes

As diseases like measles, whooping cough and tetanus spike in unvaccinated patients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a major overhaul to the childhood vaccine schedule, recommending kids get only 11 vaccines instead of 18.

“I think Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is trying to make it so that vaccines are considered optional,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Vaccine Education Center.

He previously served on the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel and said he’s deeply concerned about the CDC’s newly announced vaccine categories.

“A choice not to get a vaccine is a very real choice to suffer one of these infections,” Offit said.

The Department of Health and Human Services says it made the changes to “rebuild trust in public health,” citing a “need for more and better gold standard science.”

“When RFK Jr. says that we aren’t paying attention to vaccine safety, what he really means is that we’re not finding the vaccine safety issues that he thinks are issues, like autism or diabetes or multiple sclerosis,” Offit said. “And every time that’s been looked at, he’s been shown to be wrong.”

The CDC still recommends 11 vaccines for all children, including DTAP, HIB, PCV, polio, MMR, HPV and chickenpox.

In June, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, who combined had more than 460 years of medical experience.

Several current panel members have expressed skepticism around vaccines.

“I am not an antivaxxer,” said Robert Malone of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. “I am absolutely opposed now to vaccine mandates. That’s my personal position.”

An NBC News investigation found in almost 80% of counties and jurisdictions in the U.S., vaccination rates have decreased over the past six years.

All vaccines will still be available, and insurance will still cover them for families that want their children vaccinate.