Overview
- Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill approved guidance that reduces universal pediatric recommendations from 17 diseases to 11, effective immediately.
- Vaccines for rotavirus, influenza, COVID-19, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A and hepatitis B were shifted to shared clinical decision-making, with RSV and certain others directed to high-risk groups.
- HHS said all vaccines listed by the CDC, regardless of category, will continue to be covered without patient cost by public programs and ACA-compliant private plans.
- The CDC now recommends a single dose of the HPV vaccine instead of the previous two-dose series for younger children.
- Medical groups including the AAP, AMA and IDSA condemned the overhaul as nontransparent and risky, noting it was implemented outside the ACIP process and could face legal and state-level policy challenges; the changes drew on a 20-country review led by Tracy Beth Høeg and Martin Kulldorff.