This entry previously stated that on February 4, 2025 HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued a directive eliminating six vaccines from CDC immunization recommendations, including MMR. That is not supported and has been corrected here rather than removed. Kennedy was not sworn in as Secretary until February 13, 2025, so he could not have issued a directive on February 4, and the Congressional Research Service record of vaccine recommendation changes contains no such action.
What the record does show is a slower rebuild across 2025, followed by a single large change in January 2026.
Through 2025 the reconstituted ACIP made incremental changes. In May, COVID-19 vaccination moved from universal to shared clinical decision-making for children and to “no guidance” for pregnant women. In September, the combined MMRV shot lost its preferred status, with separate MMR and varicella shots recommended instead. In December, hepatitis B moved to individual decision-making for infants born to mothers who tested negative or whose status was unknown.
Then, following a presidential memorandum from Trump directing alignment with Denmark's schedule, acting CDC Director Jim O'Neill announced a rebuilt childhood immunization schedule effective January 5, 2026. Eleven vaccines remain universally recommended: measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease, HPV and varicella. Six moved to high-risk groups only: RSV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, dengue, MenACWY and MenB. Six moved to shared clinical decision-making: rotavirus, COVID-19, influenza, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A and hepatitis B. HPV was cut from two or three doses to one.
The distinction that matters, and that most coverage collapsed: no vaccine was removed from the schedule outright. Vaccines were reclassified from universal recommendation to risk-based or shared decision-making. That is a real and consequential change, because the universal recommendation is what drives insurance coverage and school requirements, but it is not the same as a vaccine being pulled. MMR in particular remains universally recommended, which matters because the measles outbreak is routinely attributed to its removal (see The Worst U.S. Measles Year Since 1991, and an Elimination Status Now Under Review).
Dr. Jesse Goodman said of the overhaul, “There will be more diseases, more infection, more hospitalization.” Dr. Michael Osterholm called the decision “wildly irresponsible.”
On March 16, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts stayed the revised schedule in American Academy of Pediatrics v. Kennedy, along with ACIP votes taken after June 11, 2025, largely reverting the childhood and adult schedules to their January 2025 versions (see A Federal Judge Blocks RFK Jr.'s Vaccine Schedule Overhaul, Finding It Likely Illegal and Most of His Vaccine Advisers 'Distinctly Unqualified' and After a Presidential Memo, HHS and CDC Cut the Number of Vaccines Recommended for All Children).