The first Monday of the new year, Jan. 5, saw significant changes in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine recommendations for children. Under the current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the changes in guidelines have lowered the number of diseases targeted from 18 to 11. The change brings significant pushbacks and concern among health experts and dissension from various states, including Illinois.
As part of the change in guidelines, the CDC separates vaccines into three categories: universally recommended shots, vaccines for high-risk groups and vaccines recommended based on shared clinical decision-making between patients and doctors. Immunization against hepatitis A, hepatitis B and rotavirus will no longer be recommended in the way shots against tetanus would be.
In addition, shots for various diseases like the flu and COVID are now only recommended for high-risk children and fall under the third category laid out by the CDC guidelines. Regarding the 11 universally recommended vaccines, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), lays out in their fact sheet that, “The CDC will continue to recommend that all children are vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis (whooping cough), Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), Pneumococcal conjugate, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and human papillomavirus (HPV), for which there is international consensus, as well as varicella (chickenpox).”
In addition, the fact sheet also assures that vaccines both universally recommended and not will continue to be covered by federal and private insurance.
The changes raise questions among families regarding where their child might fall in terms of the CDC’s three new categories. Vaccines like the RSV shot are recommended for high-risk children, but there is no clear way to determine if your child is high risk or not. Looking at RSV specifically, it is found that 75% to 80% of infants diagnosed and hospitalized with RSV show no underlying conditions and would otherwise be healthy.
The CDC offers a suggestion regarding RSV. Infants under eight months should get a RSV shot if their mother did not get one while pregnant, while a second dose should be for children with underlying issues.
The guidelines changes may impact vaccine supply. In addition, health officials worry that disease circulation will rise because of fewer vaccinations. This has been seen already with the highly preventable disease, measles. Due to consistently low cases of measles over decades, the United States had considered measles “eradicated,” but 2025 has seen significant increases in cases, jumping from about 285 reported cases in 2024, to just over 2000 in 2025, per John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Despite the changes in guidelines, the state of Illinois is refusing to comply, with the Illinois Department of Public Health saying the new guidelines have “no bearing” on local vaccine recommendation.
Vaccines that fall under the third category, like the flu vaccination, will continue to be recommended, including vaccines to prevent rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and RSV.
According to the state, Illinois has “very high” levels of flu infections, and “moderate” levels of COVID infections recently, with at least one child dying from the flu within the season so far.
HHS Secretary, Kennedy Jr., is known as a longtime anti-vaccine activist and has been readily using his new-found authority to pushback on vaccine guidelines and confidence. He has been criticized for issuing changes without new or credible evidence to support them, including his direction in November for the CDC to abandon the position that vaccines do not cause autism. His track record has spurred on continuous skepticism by critics of his initiatives.
With a noticeable rise in diseases protected against by vaccines like measles and whooping cough, some are arguing that the CDC’s change in guidelines is unnecessary and unbacked by evidence. The changes do not affect insurance coverage of vaccines, but may lower supply for vaccines not universally recommended, and may only add on to the growing concern among officials regarding the outbreak of preventable diseases.
