The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reducing the number of diseases for which all children should be routinely immunized from 17 to 11 on Monday.

The changes, which took effect immediately, move vaccines for influenza, COVID-19, rotavirus, and several other diseases from universal recommendations to either “high-risk only” categories or “shared clinical decision-making” between parents and physicians. The decision follows a December presidential directive from President Donald Trump ordering the Department of Health and Human Services to align U.S. vaccine recommendations with those of “peer, developed countries” like Denmark.

Denmark, with a population of 5.9 million and universal healthcare, differs from the United States in population size, disease burden, and health system structure. Denmark reported 99 new chronic hepatitis B cases in 2023, compared to more than 17,000 in the United States. Denmark screens nearly 100% of pregnant individuals for hepatitis B, compared to roughly 85% in the U.S., and most who test positive receive treatment.

Denmark’s schedule is also an outlier even among Nordic countries. Sweden, Norway, and Finland all have broader vaccination schedules. The United Kingdom, after reviewing three decades of U.S. data on varicella vaccination, announced it would add the chickenpox vaccine to its schedule in 2026—a vaccine Denmark does not routinely recommend. Countries including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Saudi Arabia all maintain routine meningococcal vaccination programs, which Denmark does not.

Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill, announcing the changes alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said the revisions reflect an “exhaustive review of evidence” comparing U.S. practices with 20 other developed nations. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, characterized the announcement as protecting children while “respecting families” and “rebuilding trust in public health.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics denounced the decision and announced it would maintain its own comprehensive immunization schedule, calling the new CDC guidance politically motivated and scientifically unfounded.

Under the revised schedule, the CDC now recommends universal vaccination for 11 diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), Haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcal disease, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, HPV, and varicella (chickenpox). The HPV vaccine recommendation was also reduced from two doses to one.

Vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), hepatitis A and B, dengue, and meningococcal disease will now be recommended only for children deemed “high-risk”. Parents whose children do not fall into high-risk categories can elect to vaccinate against rotavirus, COVID-19, influenza, meningitis, and hepatitis A and B through “shared clinical decision-making” with healthcare providers.

The changes arrive as the United States confronts a measles crisis not seen in years. As of early January 2026, more than 2,000 measles cases had been confirmed across 33 states—four times the total for all of 2024—with three deaths, including the first in an American child in more than 20 years. Over 90% of cases occurred in unvaccinated individuals or those with unknown vaccination status.​

Pertussis, or whooping cough, has also surged. The CDC documented nearly 28,000 cases in 2025, with 13 deaths, primarily infants under one year old. This is the first time this has happened in the last decade. ​

Public health officials directly link the outbreaks to declining vaccination rates. CDC data released in July 2025 showed kindergarten coverage for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine fell to 92.5% during the 2024-25 school year, down from 93.1% the prior year and below the 95% threshold epidemiologists consider necessary for herd immunity. Exemptions from one or more vaccines among kindergartners increased to 3.6%, up from 3.3% the previous year and a historic high.

More than 5.2 million kindergarten-aged children now live in counties where vaccination rates fall below the herd immunity benchmark. States in the lowest coverage quartile—those with 92% or less MMR coverage—accounted for 87% of all measles cases in 2025.

A 2024 CDC analysis found that among children born in the United States from 1994 to 2023, routine childhood vaccinations prevented approximately 508 million lifetime cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1,129,000 deaths. Routine childhood vaccinations will have prevented approximately 508 million lifetime cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1,129,000 deaths, at a net savings of $540 billion in direct costs and $2.7 trillion in societal costs.