\n<\/p>\n
The nation\u2019s largest pediatric medical society has released new vaccine guidelines that for the first time differ sharply from what the US government advises.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended immunization schedule, released January 26, is endorsed by 12 other medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Pharmacists Association. The AAP recommends children and adolescents be vaccinated against 18 diseases. All children should receive the COVID-19, rotavirus, hepatitis A and B, meningococcal serogroups A, C, W, Y, and B, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) at the CDC recommended these vaccines just for high-risk groups, a pivot from the agency\u2019s previous universal recommendations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognize what is happening in ACIP and more broadly across HHS is not in the interest of the American public,\u201d said Sean O\u2019Leary, MD, MPH, chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The AAP and six other medical and public health groups are suing the government in federal court to disband ACIP and invalidate its latest actions, claiming the panel now serves \u201cas a megaphone for spreading misinformation about immunization and infectious diseases.\u201d The American College of Physicians, American Public Health Association, and Infectious Diseases Society of America, among others, have joined the AAP in the lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Published in the AAP Red Book Online, the AAP\u2019s schedule is the same as what the organization published in August 2025. Those recommendations include universal COVID-19 immunization beginning at 6 months and the addition of clesrovimab (Enflonsia) \u2014 a RSV vaccine \u2014 to the list of options recommended for all infants under age 8 months during their first RSV season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMedical consensus has not shifted even if federal policy has,\u201d said Peter Chin-Hong, MD,\u00a0<\/p>\n
an infectious disease doctor at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, who was not involved in the new recommendations. \u201cThe science hasn\u2019t changed and what the AAP is doing with this statement is making that emphatic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The AAP first published formal vaccine recommendations in 1938, decades before the formation of ACIP in the 1960s. Since then, the groups have traditionally worked together with other professional medical organizations to create a \u201charmonized schedule\u201d for childhood vaccines, O\u2019Leary said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to make recommendations based on what is in the best interest of children and what the science tells us,\u201d O\u2019Leary said. \u201cUnfortunately what is happening at the federal government does not seem to be based in science.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both O\u2019Leary and Chin-Hong said that, for now, all 18 vaccines the AAP recommends should be covered by insurance for anyone who chooses to get them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the Affordable Care Act, those should still be covered by insurance,\u201d O\u2019Leary said, adding that the larger effect of the CDC\u2019s updates is sowing confusion among clinicians. \u201cWe are getting questions about this a lot from physicians.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chin-Hong said he expects confusion among parents about differences in the guidelines to affect rates of childhood vaccination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is going to change is the confusion and the time it takes for clinicians to explain the changes to parents, which will probably lead to less uptake of vaccines regardless of whether insurance covers them,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary advises clinicians to continue to advise parents as they always have done.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t recommend, in general, changing how you talk about vaccines. The vast majority of parents still vaccinate their kids according to the national recommended schedule,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary also cautions against clinicians approaching parents with the assumption that they are skeptical about vaccine safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know they are the standard of care, so recommend them as you have, and then if parents have questions, understand that they aren\u2019t trying to argue with you, they are concerned about the well-being of their kids,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chin-Hong said he recommends focusing on what has not changed rather than what has.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe provider hasn\u2019t changed, the science hasn\u2019t changed, we still have a lot of confidence, and the vaccines are still safe, and these recommendations are based in science, just like the other recommendations I give in my practice,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The AAP has created a parent-friendly immunization schedule at HealthyChildren.org.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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