Fewer shots, bigger questions

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 8th of January.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

First up: the CDC’s childhood vaccination schedule.

Vaccines are a routine part of life for many children and their parents, but which ones they get may be changing. Earlier this week, the CDC reduced the number of diseases it recommends for universal childhood vaccination from 17 down to 11.

WORLD’s Emma Freire has the story.

EMMA FREIRE: When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was sworn in as HHS secretary, he promised big changes.

KENNEDY: Our plans are radical transparency and returning gold-standard science to NIH, to the FDA, and CDC — to end — ending the corruption, ending the corporate capture of those agencies, getting rid of the people on those panels that have conflicts of interest.

Kennedy quickly made good on his promise to shake things up. Kennedy has frequently questioned vaccine safety in the past and his opponents brand him an “anti-vaxxer.”

On Monday this week, the CDC announced it was reducing the number of immunizations it recommends to all children. The CDC still recommends immunizations for all children against diseases like polio and measles.

But for diseases like Hepatitis A and RSV, the CDC now recommends immunizations only for some groups considered high-risk. For still other diseases like flu, COVID-19 and rotavirus, parents and physicians are to share the decision-making. The changes come after President Trump issued a memorandum directing Secretary Kennedy to review the entire childhood vaccination schedule and align it with the best practices of other developed countries. Trump has frequently expressed his view that American kids get too many vaccines.

TRUMP: It's so important to me to take, see the doctor four times or five times for a vaccine. Don't let them pump your baby up with the largest pile of stuff you've ever seen in your life going into the the delicate little body of a baby.

Brian Hooker is the Chief Science Officer at Children’s Health Defense, a non-profit founded by Kennedy. He thinks vaccine safety concerns will wind up in court.

HOOKER: it's really a quagmire, because there are a lot of interesting questions that come up regarding, the immunity that vaccine manufacturers have regarding lawsuit through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which was a result of that a law that was passed in 1986 the National Childhood Vaccine Injury act.

Kennedy targeted the vaccine schedule soon after he took office. In June, he fired all members of a panel that advises the CDC on vaccines … the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Last month, the committee voted to end its advice that all newborns get vaccinated against Hepatitis B within 24 hours of birth.

DR. ROBERT MALONE: 8 votes yes and 3 votes no. The motion passes.

Hepatitis B is an infection of the liver. In adults, it is most often spread through sexual contact or blood exposure, including shared needles. But when a pregnant woman is infected, the virus can be passed to her baby during childbirth, which is why newborn vaccination became standard. Here’s Dr. Ana Weil, an assistant professor at the University of Washington.

WEIL: We in public health, I think, think of it as even one, even one person being born and being exposed to hepatitis B when it's preventable is too many.

Hooker argues the vaccine itself carries significant risks. He thinks the vaccine did not undergo sufficiently rigorous testing for safety before its release.

HOOKER: The Hepatitis B shot, when it was originally tested by the FDA, was tested on a total of 147 infants, and it was tested for five days. So if there was a safety signal after five days, then that was not recorded.

But Dr. Weil says the vaccine has a proven track record. It’s been recommended at birth since 1991.

WEIL: The vaccine has been given for several decades without an issue. So to suggest that these are are in need of review, that the current schedule isn't safe or is not in the public's interest, is just not based on evidence because there is not new evidence that has come to light.

Hooker hopes the review of vaccines will be part of a bigger discussion about high rates of chronic disease in America.

HOOKER. Let's also look at the food we eat. Let's look at the air that we breathe. Adding vaccines to the list of questions that need to be answered in order to find clues for the chronic disease epidemic, especially in children? I think that’s really a good thing.

The future of the new vaccine schedule is unclear. Multiple states and medical societies including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have announced they will continue recommending the previous schedule.

Adding to the uncertainty: States have the right to determine which vaccines are required for school attendance. Some states, like California, don’t allow religious exemptions and place strict limits on medical exemptions. Others, like Texas, are more flexible with exemptions.

As states and medical groups go in different directions, it is unclear which set of recommendations will carry the most weight.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Freire.

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