What changed about the CDC's childhood vaccine recommendations?
Parents looking to get their children vaccinated are navigating confusing times. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced new guidelines on the shots it recommends for kids. But the Minnesota Department of Health disagrees with the changes.
For decades, the MDH was in line with the CDC's childhood vaccination recommendations.
That started to change last year. But this month, MDH is officially breaking away and siding with organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The federal versus state clash is creating mixed messaging for families. What changed about the CDC's childhood vaccine recommendations? Good Question.
Initially, all children were recommended to get vaccines for 17 diseases. Now, the CDC scaled it back to the following 11 diseases: measles, mumps and rubella; whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria; the bacterial disease known as Hib; pneumonia; polio; chickenpox; and human papillomavirus, or HPV.
The remaining diseases were split among two new categories. The first is "immunizations recommended for high-risk groups," which now includes RSV, hepatitis B and hepatitis A, dengue and two vaccines for bacterial meningitis.
The last category is "immunizations based on shared clinical decision making," which means parents consulting with a doctor. That's where the flu, rotavirus and COVID-19 vaccines are now listed, among others.
The next question: why did the CDC make changes? According to U.S. Health and Human Services, it was after reviewing underlying science and trying to better line up with peer nations.
"The president asked us to change, to look at what the European countries were doing, which have much less chronic disease than we do, and to find out what the best practices were there and to implement them," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy told CBS News.
Medical professionals, like those at MDH, said there's no new evidence warranting a change to the childhood vaccine schedule.
"The vaccines that had been routinely recommended and are on the AAP schedule are safe, they're effective," said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, state epidemiologist and medical director at MDH. "The goal is not to have fewer vaccines, the goal is to have fewer deaths, to have fewer hospitalizations, to have fewer illnesses."
One last thing to clarify is the flu vaccine. It's in the category under shared clinical decision-making, meaning parents would need to talk with a doctor first. Kennedy told CBS News that it may lead to fewer kids getting a flu shot. In Minnesota, there's a way for parents to skip the extra step of talking with a doctor if their child is at least 3 years old.
"A pharmacist is someone who can provide the shared clinical decision making, and a pharmacist in Minnesota can vaccinate down to age 3," said Lynfield.
Despite the CDC's changes, federal and private insurance will still cover vaccines for diseases that the CDC no longer recommends, according to HHS.
CBS News dug deeper into the diseases no longer on the CDC's recommended vaccination list. To read it, click here.
To see the American Academy of Pediatrics' vaccine recommendation schedule, click here.
To see the CDC's vaccine recommendation schedule, click here.