Recommendations on vaccines against influenza, rotavirus, and hepatitis A are among those that could be updated—or removed.
Federal recommendations for a handful of vaccines have already changed during President Donald Trump’s second term. More changes could be on the way, under a new directive from Trump for health officials to review vaccine schedules from other countries.
While the United States as of January recommended children receive vaccines against 18 diseases, Denmark only recommends vaccinations for 10 diseases, the president noted. He also pointed to schedules in Japan and Germany that target fewer diseases than the United States.
Here’s more on Trump’s memorandum and which recommendations could be changed.
Trump’s Directive to RFK Jr., CDC
Trump’s Dec. 5 memo directs Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and acting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Jim O’Neill to “review best practices from peer, developed countries for core childhood vaccination recommendations—vaccines recommended for all children—and the scientific evidence that informs those best practices.”
If the officials determine that recommendations from other countries are superior to those in the United States, they are directed to “update the United States core childhood vaccine schedule to align with such scientific evidence and best practices from peer, developed countries while preserving access to vaccines currently available to Americans,” the president added.
Trump said on Truth Social that he wants to see an updated schedule “finally rooted in the Gold Standard of Science and COMMON SENSE” and that he’s confident Kennedy and the CDC “will get this done, quickly and correctly, for our Nation’s Children.”
“Thank you, Mr. President,” Kennedy said on X. “We’re on it.”
Thank you, Mr. President. We’re on it. https://t.co/WNaTH73CXB
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) December 6, 2025
Dr. Robert Malone, an adviser to O’Neill on vaccines and former EpochTV host, told The Epoch Times that there’s a lot of discussion about how exactly to implement Trump’s directive.
“The entire schedule now needs to be reconsidered,” he added later.
HHS declined to make Kennedy or O’Neill available for interviews, and did not respond to a list of emailed questions.
Some experts welcomed the development.
“America is the most over-medicated nation on Earth,“ Dr. Joseph Varon, president and chief medical officer of the Independent Medical Alliance, whose partners include Kennedy’s former organization Children’s Health Defense, said in an emailed statement. ”It’s time that US health agencies gathered all available data globally and compared methodologies to determine the safest and most effective vaccine schedule for America’s infants.”
Others said the schedule should be maintained without change.
“The current schedule that we have protects kids, and works real well,” Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association and a former consultant to vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, told The Epoch Times. “There’s absolutely no reason to think that people get more vaccines than they need to.”
Officials representing the Danish Health Authority and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute told The Epoch Times via email that they would not be commenting on the move by Trump. Japanese authorities did not return an inquiry.
